Fi^:^ 


hii^0'-'- 


E 


MBIIABY 

OF   THE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


GIFT  OF 


DANIEL    C.    OILMAN 


AD   FIDEM; 


PARISH    EVIDENCES 


OF  THE  BIBLE. 


BY 

REV.    E.   F.   BURR,   D.  D., 

AUTHOR    OF  "  ECCE  CCELUM  "    AND   "  PATER   MUNDI,"   AND   LECTURER   ON   TUH 
SCIENTIFIC   EVIDENCES   OF   RELIGION    IN   AMHERST   COLLEGE. 


BOSTON: 
NOYES,   HOLMES,   AND   COMPANY, 

No.  117  Washington  Street. 
1871. 


^ 


s^'f 


> 


% 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871,  by 

NoYES,  Holmes,  and  Company, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


RIVERSIDE,    CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED     AND     PRINTED     BY 

H.    O.    HOt'GHTON    AND   COMPANY. 


"TO   CHRIST  AND    HIS    CHURCH.' 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/adfidemorparisheOOburrrich 


ECCE    CCELUM; 

OR, 

PARISH  ASTRONOMY. 


ELEVENTH    EDITION. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  EXTRACTS. 

From  the  Theological  Eclectic,  [Edited  by  Professor  Day,  Schaff,  etc.] 

"  The  style  is  remarkably  graphic  and  elastic,  and  the  matter  is 
BO  skilfully  grouped  and  lucidly  stated  as  to  be  level  to  all  classes 
of  readers.  The  writer  has  a  rare  gift  at  popularizing  science, 
and  his  book  deserves  the  wide  welcome  it  has  received." 

From  the  New  York  Observer. 
"  We  have  never  yet  seen  a  volume  on  Astronomy  that  seemed 
to  us  to  explain  more  intelligently,  to  ordinary  minds,  the  visible 
phenomena  of  the  heavenly  bodies." 

From  the  Congregationalist. 
"  We  advise  all  our  readers  who  have  not  yet  read  the  book 
entitled  *  Ecce  Coelum,'  to  embrace  their  earliest  opportunity  to 
do  so, — a  book  which  certainly  has  been  surpassed  by  nothing 
of  this  general  line,  for  many  years,  if  ever.  There  is  a  grandeur 
of  conception — an  easy  grasp  of  great  facts — 2k  clear  apprehen- 
sion of  deep  and  subtle  relations — a  power  to  see,  and  make 
others  see,  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  heavenly  movements, 
such  as  are  altogether  wonderful.  Many  works  have  been  writ- 
ten from  time  to  time  to  popularize  astronomy — to  bring  its 
great  leading  features  within  the  compass  of  unscientific  minds. 
But  we  do  not  know  of  a  work  in  which  this  has  been  so  finely 
done  as  in  *  Ecce  Cesium.'  Six  lectures  of  about  an  hour  each, 
tell  the  story,  and  the  reader  feels,  all  the  while,  as  if  he  were 
upon  a  triumphal  mai-cli.    He  is  upborne  and  sustained  by  hia 


guide,  80  thai  he  has  no  sense  of  labor  and  weariness  on  iihfi 
journey.  Tbe  hist  chapter,  on  '  The  Author  of  Nature,'  is  a 
most  worthy  and  fitting  close  to  the  book.  We  wish  it  could  be 
read  by  that  great  host  of  so-called  scientific  men,  who  are  delv- 
ing away  in  the  mines  of  nature,  with  thoughts  and  purposes 
materialistic  and  half  atheistic.  They  need  the  tonic  of  such 
Christian  thinking  as  this." 

From  Hours  at  Home. 
"  This  little  book,  from  the  pen  of  Eev.  E.  F.  Burr,  D.D.,  haa 
already  been  noticed  extensively  and  pronounced  a  *  remarkable 
book '  by  our  best  critics.  The  author  first  delivered  the  sub- 
stance of  it  to  his  own  people  in  familiar  lectures.  It  presents  a 
clear  and  succinct  resume  of  the  sublime  teachings  of  astronomy, 
especially  as  related  to  natural  religion.  The  theme  is  an  in- 
spiring one,  and  the  author  is  master  of  his  subject,  and  handles 
it  with  rare  tact,  and  succeeds  as  few  men  have  ever  done  in 
giving  an  intelligent  view  of  the  wonders  of  astronomy,  accord- 
ing to  the  latest  researches  and  discoveries.  It  is  indeed  an 
eloquent  and  masterly  production." 

From  Harper's  Monthly. 
"  The  title  page  of  *  Ecce  Coelum '  is  the  poorest  page  in  the 
book.  We  have  seen  nothing  since  the  days  of  Dr.  Chalmer's 
Astronomical  Discourses  equal  in  their  kind  to  these  six  simple 
lectures.  By  an  imagination  which  is  truly  contagious  the 
writer  lifts  us  above  the  earth  and  causes  us  to  wander  for  a 
time  among  the  stars.  The  most  abstruse  truths  he  succeeds  in 
translating  into  popular  forms.  Science  is  with  him  less  a  study 
than  a  poem,  less  a  poem  than  a  form  of  devotion.  The  writer 
who  can  convert  the  Calculus  into  a  fairy  story,  as  Dr.  Burr  has 
doue,  may  fairly  hope  that  no  theme  can  thwart  the  solving 
power  of  his  imagination.  An  enthusiast  in  science,  he  is  also 
an  earnest  Cliristian  at  heart.  He  makes  no  attempt  to  recon- 
cile science  and  religion,  but  writes  as  with  a  charming  ignor- 
ance that  any  one  had  ever  been  so  absurdly  irrational  as  to 
Imagine  that  they  were  ever  at  variance." 

From  the  Evangelist. 

"  We  have  had  many  inquiries  in  regard  to  the  authorship  of 

Kcce  Coelum,'    the  volume  noticed  somewhat  at  length  two 


weeks  since.  To  save  writing  a  numbir  of  letters,  we  may  say 
liere,  that  the  Country  Pastor,  who  is  the  author  of  these  six 
Lectures  on  '  Parish  Astronomy,'  is  the  Rev.  E.  F.  Burr,  D.D., 
of  Lyme,  Ct.  The  book  is  a  16mo  of  about  two  hundred 
pages,  but  in  that  small  compass  it  comprises  the  results  of  long 
study,  and  will  be  found  as  instructive  as  it  is  eloquent.  The 
grandest  truths  are  made  level  to  the  plainest  understanding. 
We  took  it  up,  expecting  little  from  its  humble  pretensions,  but 
soon  found  that  it  was  all  compact  with  scientific  knowledge, 
yet  glowing  with  religious  faith,  and  were  not  surprised  that  Dr. 
Bushnell  should  say  he '  had  not  been  so  fascinated  by  any  book 
for  a  long  time —  neuer  by  a  book  on  that  subject ' —  and  that  it 
had  given  him  '  a  betteridea  of  astronomy  than  he  ever  got  be- 
fore from  all  other  sources.'  We  don't  know  if  they  have  many 
such  ministers  '  lying  around '  in  the  country  parishes  of  Con- 
necticut, but  if  so  it  must  be  a  remarkable  State. 

"  While  the  impression  of  this  fiiscjnating  volume  is  fresh  in 
ramd,"  etc. 

From  Rev.  G.  W.  Andrews,  D.D.,  President  of  Marietta  College. 

"  The  author  has  succeeded  admirably  in  his  attempt  to  pre- 
sent the  great  facts  of  Astronomical  Science  in  such  form  as  to 
be  intelligible  to  those  who  have  not  gone  through  with  a 
Uiorough  mathematical  training,  and  to  make  them  intensely  in- 
teresting to  all  cliisses  of  readers.  I  cannot  express  more  strong- 
ly the  interest  the  volume  excited  than  by  saying  that  I  read 
through  at  once.  I  can  hardly  remember  when  I  have  done  the 
Bame  with  another  work." 

From  Rev.  Edwin  Hall,  D.D.,  Professor  in  Auburn  Tlieological  Seminary 
"I  received  it  last  night,  and  have  read  it  through  with  intense 
interest  and  delight.  It  is  a  worthy  book  on  a  mighty  theme. 
I  wish  it  might  be  in  every  household,  and  read  by  everybody. 
And  I  am  sure  it  will  be  read  with  admiration  and  wonder  long 
itfter  the  author  shall  have  been  gathered  to  his  fathers." 

From  Rev.  Prof.  E.  W.  Hooker,  D.  D. 
"  The  book  is  an  admirable  argument  from  the  discoveries  of 
modern  Astronomers,  for  the  existence  of  God;  and  indirectly 
Tor  the  truth  of  the  Gospel.    It  is  an  honor  to  his  kindred,  to  the 


Church  and  the  place  of  his  birth,  and,  above  all,  to  Him  whose  gos- 
pel  he  preaches." 

From  an  Obituary  of  Rev.  S.  L.  Pomroy^   D.D.,  late  Secretary  of  tht 
A.  B.  a  F.  M. 

'*  He  was  a  man  of  extensive  information,  a  ripe  scholar,  and  he 
retained  his  scholarly  habits  and  tastes  to  the  last.  A  few  weeks 
since  he  read  '  Ecce  Ccelum*  with  great  pleasure  and  satisfaction, 
When  he  returned  it  he  remarked,  '  I  have  read  it  all  twice,  parts  of 
it  three  times,  and  have  noted  down  certain  passages.'  He  was  spec- 
ially delighted  with  the  arrangement  of  the  work  —  the  grouping  of 
the  different  system  so  as  to  give  us  sonething  like  a  comprehensive 
idea  of  the  grand  whole." 

From  the  Congregational  Quarterly. 

That  a  Connecticut  Pastor  should  be  able  in  six  lectures  to  his  peo- 
ble  to  shed  more  light  on  this  profound  subject — to  make  it  more 
simple  and  yet  more  grand,  amazing,  and  impressive  —  than  many 
of  the  great  masters  who  have  written  before  him  is  a  matter  of  sur- 
prise. Yet  this  seems  to  be  the  generally  conceded  opinion  of  the 
press.  We  hear  but  one  testimony  concerning  Ecce  Ccelum.  Any 
intelligent  reader  of  it  can  understand  what  before  has  been  only  a 
mystery.     It  is  worthy  of  the  widest  circulation. 

From  Uie  Lawrence  American. 

There  is  not  a  dry  page  in  these  six  lectures ;  but  the  glories  of  the 
skies  are  presented  in  a  most  enchanting  manner,  vivid,  popular, 
grand,  and  glowing.         Young  and  old  should  read  it. 

From  The  Christian  Union. 
We  can  commend  this  book  in  the  heartiest  manner.  It  is  one  of  the 
noblest  examples  of  the  moral  uses  of  astronomy  that  have  appeared 
since  Ciialmer's  astronomical  sermons.  Besides  their  intrinsic 
merit,  these  lectures  show  what  may  be  done  by  a  quiet  pastor  of  a 
village  church  for  the  instruction  of  his  people.  Every  preacher  has 
not  the  equipment  required  for  a  course  of  scientific  lectures :  but 
"  where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way,"  and  much  more  might  ba 
done  than  is  done  in  broadening  a  pastor's  literary  education  and  ie 
raising  the  literary  tastes  of  his  people. 


A    REMARKABLE    BOOK. 


ECCE    COELUM; 

OB, 

PARISH     ASTRONOMY. 

By  Rev.  E.  F.  BURR,  D.D. 

1  toL  16mo,  198  pp.    Price,  $1.25.    New  Edition.    Sen'  prepaid  by  mall 
on  receipt  of  price. 


NOYES,    HOLMES    &    CO. 
117    Washington    Street,    Boston. 


The  Publishers  request  special  attention  to  the  following  un* 
solicited  testimonials,  which  have  been  received  jfrom  source* 
worthy  of  regard. 

From  Rev,  W.  A.  Steams^  D.D.,  LL.D.,  JVesideni  of  Amherst  College. 
•*  I  have  read  it  with  great  profit  and  admiration.  It  is  a  grand 
production,  — very  clear  and  satisfactory,  scientifically  considered ; 
very  exalted  and  exalting  in  spirit  and  manner ;  and  exhibiting  a 
wealth  of  appropriate  emotion  and  expression  which  surprises  me. 
May  the  life  and  health  of  the  author  be  spared  to  show  still 
further  that  God  is  and  that  His  works  are  great,  sought  out  of 
them  that  have  pleasure  therein." 

From  Rev.  Horace  Bushnell,  D.D. 
**  1  have  not  been  so  much  fascinated  by  any  book  for  a  long 
lime  — never  by  a  book  on  that  particular  subject.  It  is  popu- 
larised in  the  form,  yet  not  evaporated  in  the  substance,  —  it 
tmgles  with  life  all  through,  —  and  the  wonder  is,  that,  casting  off 
BO  much  of  the  paraphernalia  of  science,  and  descending,  for  the 
most  pan,  to  common  language,  it  brings  out,  not  so  much,  but  so 
much  more  of  the  meaning.    I  have  gotten  a  better  idea  of  AstroD- 


VI  PREFACE. 

with  these  views,  large  space  has  been  given  Co  the 
earlier  topics  of  the  book. 

The  author  by  no  means  professes  to  give  all  that 
he  considers  available  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Bible. 
He  only  offers  such  specimens  as  he  has  happened 
thus  far  to  present  to  his  own  people.  He  knows  that 
these  are  only  a  few  out  of  many  equally  sound.  But 
he  also  knows  that  these  few  are  abundantly  sufficient 
to  put  every  true  inquirer  in  the  way  of  a  rational 
faith. 

The  reader  may  expect  to  find  throughout  the  work 
an  air  of  great  confidence.  He  is  invited  to  attribute 
this,  not  to  a  professional  habit,  but  to  the  sincere  con- 
viction of  one  who  in  a  course  of  rational  inquiry  has 
been  "brought  out  into  a  wealthy  place."  Not  only 
was  Diderot  right  when  he  said,  "  No  better  lessons 
than  those  of  the  Bible  can  I  teach  my  child ; "  not 
only  was  Franklin  right  when  he  said  with  dying  lips, 
"  Young  man,  my  advice  to  you  is  that  you  cultivate  an 
acquaintance  with  and  a  firm  belief  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures —  this  is  your  certain  interest ; "  but  even  Des- 
cartes and  Newton  were  right  when  they  said,  "  No 
sciences  are  better  attested  than  is  the  Religion  of  the 
Bible  —  not  even  the  mathematical."  Nay,  One  still 
more  illustrious  than  these  great  scientists  was  right 
when  He  said,  "If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the 
Prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded  though  one 


PREFACE.  vii 

rose  from  the  dead."  Whoever  will  take  the  trouble 
to  go  as  far  as  the  metaphysics  of  the  senses  or  of 
geometry,  can  find  that  even  their  ultimate  principles 
are  assailed  by  no  smaller  objections  and  defended  by 
no  greater  proofs  than  attach  to  the  Biblical  Religion. 
And  yet  he  would  not  be  the  wisest  of  men  who  should 
decline  to  believe  in  an  external  world,  or  should  allow 
himself  to  suspect  that  he  is  following  "cunningly 
devised  fables  "  while  following  the  triumphant  dem- 
onstrations of  Newton  and  La  Place. 
Lyme,  Connecticut, 


CONTENTS. 

I.    Various  Opinions i 

II.  General  Assent  to  Fundamentals         .        .        19 

III.  A  Sad  Exception 35 

IV.  A  GRE.A.T  Offer 55 

V.    Will  You  Accept.? 71 

VI.  First  Condition  —  A  Sincere  Wish  for  Light    87 

VII.  Second  Condition  —  Using  Present  Light       .  107 

VIII.  Third  Condition  -r-  Patient  Direct  Seeking      123 

IX.    Presumptions 145 

X.    Three  Prophecies 187 

XL     An  Incredible  Imposture 205 

XII.     Ancient  Wonders 223 

XIII.  Modern  Signs 249 

XIV.  Nearing  the  Curtain 267 

XV.    The  Curtain  rising .291 

XVI.     Christian  Dynamics 315 


I. 
VARIOUS   OPINIONS. 


I.    Various  Opinions. 

1.  THE   FACT 3 

2.  THE  STUMBLING 5 

3.  WHY  NOT  ? 7 


VARIOUS  OPINIONS. 


"VTY  attention  is  called  to  the  great  Conflict  of 
-^'-^  Religious  Opinions. 

I  see  it.  I  acknowledge  and  proclaim  it.  It  is 
in  the  religious  field  very  much  as  it  is  in  all  other 
fields  of  thought.  The  views  that  prevail  in  this 
place  you  will  find  refused  in  that  other  place  to 
which  a  few  hours'  travel  will  bring  you ;  and  a 
few  hours  more  will  bring  you  where  discredit  is 
cast  on  the  views  of  both.  The  views  which  you 
hold  you  will  find  either  not  held  at  all,  or  held 
with  variations  by  almost  every  person  of  your  ac- 
quaintance. You  can  hardly  make  an  assertion  so 
trifling  or  so  great  but  some  one  is  ready  to  dispute 
or  qualify  it.  You  can  hardly  start  a  question 
which  is  not  answered  with  some  show  of  candor  in 
as  many  different  ways  as  the  nature  of  the  case 
allows.  Have  you  found  a  position  that  seems  as 
impregnable  as  very  mathematics  ?  Be  sure  some 
one  will  make  an  attempt  to  dislodge  you.  Have 
you  fallen  on  a  doctrine  all  of  whose  features  seem 
bright  with  intuitive  certainty  ?  Be  sure  you  will 
not  have  far  to  go  in  order  to  find  a  man  who  will 


4  VARIOUS  OPINIONS. 

question  your  axiom,  and  even  pronounce  oracularly 
that  what  to  you  is  intuitively  true  is  to  him  intui- 
tively false.  Is  the  case  plainly  one  of  such  vast 
consequence  to  be  decided  rightly  that  it  seems  as 
if  all  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  inquirers  would 
be  awed  into  a  hearty  desire  to  find  the  truth,  and 
all  men  come  together  in  a  blessed  uniformity  of 
decision  ?  Do  not  flatter  yourselves  with  such  an 
idea.  Against  any  Scripture  you  quote  an  antag- 
onist will  quote  another ;  and  what  you  feel  it  im- 
portant for  all  the  world  to  believe,  he  will  claim  it 
important  for  all  the  world  to  disbelieve. 

A  wondrous  confusion  of  tongues !  Languages 
and  dialects  and  provincialisms  and  personal  brogues 
of  opinions  almost  as  many  as  individual  men  — 
what  a  stupendous  Babel !  Its  summit  is  above  the 
clouds,  and  its  base  covers  all  the  lands. 

Some  evils  of  this  state  of  things  are  very  ap- 
parent. These  conflicting  opinions  cannot  all  be 
true.  The  doctrine  or  the  contradiction  of  the 
doctrine  must  be  false.  A  large  part  of  mankind  — 
and  indeed  every  person  to  some  extent — is  holding 
error  on  what  is  confessedly  the  most  important  of 
all  subjects ;  and,  so  far  as  conduct  agrees  with 
theory,  is  kicking  against  the  pricks  of  the  constitu- 
tion and  coui*se  of  Nature.  Of  course,  much  hurt 
and  lameness  follow.  And  then  we  have  time- 
consuming  controversy.  We  have  the  disturbance 
and  alienation  of  feeling  which  dispute  is  apt  to  oc- 
casion.    Every  good  cause  suffers  much  from  that 


THE  STUMBLING.  6 

want  of  union  in  eifort  which  comes  from  the  divis- 
ion of  good  men  into  sects  and  schools.  Could 
these  men  see  eye  to  eye,  and  at  the  same  time 
truly,  it  would  give  an  unprecedented  impulse  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  world.  A  year  would  hold 
up  in  its  exultant  hands  such  purple  fruitage  as 
centuries  of  separate  and  too  often  conflicting  action 
have  not  been  able  to  ripen.  The  compact  army 
marching  as  one  man  gains  victories  impossible  to 
many  times  its  number  of  chaotic  soldiers,  whatever 
their  individual  zeal  and  strength. 

A  sense  of  the  many  evils  flowing  from  the  huge 
conflict  of  religious  opinion  has  led,  at  times,  to 
great  effort  for  its  removal.  The  evils  are  great. 
Their  thorns  are  such  as  men  can  readily  feel. 
And  so  immense  war  has  been  made  on  religious 
dissent.  The  press  and  the  pulpit  and  the  rostrum 
have  been  earnestly  invoked.  Eloquent  pens  have 
labored  day  and  night  to  scatter  the  persuasions 
and  demonstrations  which  should  convince  their 
own  and  succeeding  times.  Eloquent  voices  have 
busily  journeyed  about  for  the  purpose  of  charming 
society  into  such  oneness  of  faith  as  suited  their  own 
})articular  views.  In  other  times  and  countries  men 
were  wont  to  seek  the  same  end  by  the  argument 
of  the  sword.  Until  quite  recently  all  parties  have 
deemed  it  right  to  use  the  civil  power  to  enforce 
religious  unity;  and,  through  painful  ages,  laws, 
prisons,  exiles,  and  even  scaffolds,  were  every- 
where invoked  to  side  with  argument  in  the  effort 


6  VARIOUS  OPINIONS. 

to  secure  the  much  coveted  monotony  of  creed. 
Our  honored  fathers  fell  into  tlie  fault  of  their 
times.  It  was  an  act  of  uniformity  which  expelled 
them  from  their  English  h^mes,  and  it  was  by  an 
act  of  uniformity  tliat  themselves  expelled  from 
American  homes  their  dissenting  neighbors.  But 
discussion  and  violence,  and  what  some  have  thought 
still  more  effective,  a  persevering  letting  alone,  have 
ahke  failed  of  their  end.  Religious  opinion  takes 
about  as  many  forms  as  ever.  If  old  differences  are 
continually  dying  out,  new  ones  are  continually 
coming  to  life.  If  people  think  more  alike  in  fun- 
damentals than  once,  they  are  perhaps  further  apart 
than  ever  on  things  of  minor  consequence,  and  the 
points  of  divergence  are  more  numerous.  The 
habit  of  speculation  which  the  increased  means  of 
information  and  intellectual  culture  have  made  quite 
general,  has  increased  many  fold  those  nicer  distinc- 
tions between  views  which  are  so  unnatural  to  a  rude 
and  material  age.  So  here  we  are,  some  crying 
one  thing  and  some  another,  like  the  people  of 
Ephesus  ;  society  very  much  of  a  Babel  of  confused 
and  contradicting  statements  ;  as  much  so,  for  aught 
we  can  see,  as  if  the  learned  had  never  disputed,  the 
powerful  never  persecuted,  and  the  prudent  never 
allowed  the  bones  of  contention  to  rest. 

But  some  one  may  ask.  Why  dwell  on  these  dis- 
agreeable and,  to  many,  stumbling  facts  ?  I  answer, 
For  the  purpose  of  showing  that  these  many  have 
not  the  reason  to  be  stumbled  which  they  are  apt 


WHY  NOT?  7 

to  suppose.  Does  it  follow  from  the  fact  that  there 
are  many  different  opinions  in  religion  that  you  are 
at  liberty  to  content  yourself  with  no  opinion  at  all  ? 
Does  it  follow  that  because  there  are  so  many  differ- 
ent views  plausibly  supported  you  may  adopt  the 
one  most  agreeable  to  your  wishes  ?  The  doubting, 
the  disputation,  the  contradiction,  that  entangle  all 
moral  themes  — do  these  show  that  nothing  can  be 
known  with  certainty  on  such  matters,  at  least  by 
men  of  ordinary  talents  and  opportunities  ?  Do  they 
show  the  Scriptures  unworthy  of  their  reputation  as 
the  illuminators  of  mankind  ;  worse  still  that  God  is 
unreal,  or  unmindful  of  the  wants  of  men,  or  unjust, 
or  unlikely  to  hold  us  responsible  for  any  views  we 
may  hold  ?  Far  from  it.  It  is  an  evil,  and,  in  some 
respects,  a  perplexing  fact  that  you  see,  doubtless  ; 
but  it  authorizes  no  such  dreary  conclusions.  A 
variety  of  things  at  once  mortifying  and  salutary 
may  be  inferred,  but  not  one  of  those  at  once  mor- 
tifying and  pernicious  things  which  would  set  us 
floating  about  on  the  dangerous  sea  of  life  without 
the  rudder  and  compass  of  any  fixed  principle. 

Notice  that  many  of  the  so-called  opinions  on  re- 
ligious subjects  are  unreal.  In  cases  not  a  few,  men 
do  not  fairly  believe  what  they  affirm.  This  may 
seem  to  some  a  harsh  statement ;  but  not  to  most 
of  those  who  have  had  some  experience  in  the  ways 
of  the  world,  and  have  thought  somewhat  on  that 
''xperience.  Love  of  dispute  for  its  own  sake  will 
itad  some  to  challenge  the  positions  which  they  hear. 


8  VARIOUS  OPINIONS. 

Personal  ill-will  often  leads  men  to  oppose  the  senti- 
ments of  their  neighbors.  Motives  of  interest  bring 
many  to  espouse  a  side  which  has  no  hold  upon 
their  judgments.  No  one  doubts  that  this  justly  de- 
scribes the  state  of  things  in  the  political  world ;  its 
truth  there  is  matter  of  proverb.  What  is  there  to 
prevent  a  like  state  of  things  in  the  religious  world  ? 
Here,  too,  happen  what,  to  say  the  least,  is  much 
less  common  elsewhere  ;  namely,  frequent  mistakes 
by  the  mind  as  to  what  itself  actually  pronounces. 
It  thinks  itself  to  believe  what  it  does  not.  By 
wishing  to  have  a  certain  opinion  and  by  trying  to 
have  it,  we  may  finally  come  to  think  it  a  matter  of 
actual  possession,  when  in  fact  our  judgments  are 
still  unconvinced.  What  is  called  conversion  often 
brings  out  strancje  confessions.  It  often  confesses  to 
insincerities  and  self-impositions  in  former  reason- 
ings, of  which  at  the  time  the  man  was  all  uncon- 
scious. He  now  sees  that  he  had  no  true  faith  in 
the  errors  he  thought  himself  to  honestly  espouse. 
And  like  discoveries  are  often  made  by  events  other 
than  conversion.  Dying,  for  example,  detects  to 
many  a  conscience  what  it  seems  to  have  done  to 
that  of  Voltaire,  beliefs  in  God  and  religion  which 
have  remained  latent  to  all  but  a  Divine  eye  for 
many  years.  No  juggling  is  more  wonderful  than 
that  which  the  mind  is  prone  to  play  upon  itself.  If 
therefore  any  are  stumbled  by  seeing  so  wide  a  vari- 
ety of  conflicting  statements  in  matters  of  religion,  let 
them  abate  somewhat  from  their  stumbling  by  con- 


WHY  NOT?  9 

sidering  that  this  variety  is  far  from  being  as  great 
as  it  is  apt  to  seem  ;  that  a  large  part  of  the  so- 
called  opinions  of  the  day  are  too  hollow  and  un- 
substantial to  deserve  the  name. 

"  But,  after  all  the  abatement  on  this  account 
which  reason  w^ill  allow,  there  must  still  remain  a 
very  considerable  honest  conflict  of  opinion  on  the 
subject  of  religion."  I  grant  it :  but  turn  your  at- 
tention to  another  fact  of  much  consequence.  It  is 
that  by  far  the  largest  part  of  this  honest  remainder 
relates  to  non-essentials.  The  things  which  must 
be  understood  in  order  to  salvation  and  high  virtue 
can  scarcely  exceed  half  a  dozen  particulars  — 
though  many  other  things  would,  in  the  believing,, 
contribute  to  the  symmetry  and  completeness  of 
the  character.  There  are  many  Christian  sects, 
each  at  issue  on  some  points  with  every  other ; 
each  sect  has  many  members,  nearly  every  one  of 
whom  has  shades  and  modifications  of  sentiment 
peculiar  to  himself ;  and  yet  the  points  in  dispute 
between  Congregationalist  and  Congregationalist, 
and  between  Congregationalist  and  Methodist  or 
Baptist  or  Episcopalian  or  others,  are  such  that 
each  one  of  us  may  retain  his  own  view  and  still 
repent  and  believe  and  set  forth  a  most  exemplary 
example.  Through  Christendom  fundamental  dif- 
ferences of  creed  are  the  exception.  They  are  an 
almost  inappreciable  part  of  the  whole  sum  of  relig- 
ious differences  about  us.  What  makes  such  out- 
cry and  strife  of  dispute  is  chiefly  the  mint,  anise, 


10  VARIOUS  OPINIONS. 

and  cummin  of  theology  rather  than  its  paschal 
lamb.  That  din  of  assertion  and  contradiction 
which  stumbles  some  is  for  the  most  part  made 
by  skirmishing  among  the  outposts  of  doctrine 
rather  than  by  battles  around  its  very  citadel. 
Those  outposts  might  all  be  lost  and  yet  that  citadel 
remain  safe,  though  not  undisfigured.  It  is  a  great 
satisfaction  to  feel  this.  It  does  much  to  lift  from 
our  spirits  the  shadows  cast  by  those  clouds  of 
tlieological  dispute  which  are  always  hurrying  so 
noisily  across  our  sky.  Who  cannot  now  see  be- 
tween the  clouds  great  permanent  spaces  of  cheer- 
ful blue  vault  ? 

"  But,  after  one  has  subtracted  from  conflicting 
opinions  on  religious  subjects  all  that  are  unreal, 
and  all  that  relate  to  minor  matters,  there  still  re- 
main some  that  bear  on  the  very  heart  and  marrow 
of  religion."  I  grant  it.  If  there  is  any  important 
doctrinal  ground  in  the  world,  it  has  been  torn  by 
the  iron  heel  of  controversy.  Men  can  be  found  to 
differ  as  to  whether  man  is  responsible  to  the 
Supreme  Being  for  his  conduct.  Some  may  be  seen 
asserting^  and  some  denying  the  necessity  of  repent- 
ance and  faith  to  salvation.  Here  we  find  some  to 
affirm  and  there  some  to  deny  that  we  depend  for 
regeneration  on  the  Holy  Spirit.  On  the  one  hand 
is  a  defender  and  on  the  other  hand  an  opposer  of 
a  Divine  incarnation  and  atonement.  In  the  view 
of  some  God  has  opened  for  incorrigible  sinners  a 
future  world  of  supreme  sorrow  ;  others  maintain 


WHY  NOT?  11 

the  contrary.  In  the  view  of  some  the  Bible  and 
all  the  Bible  is  the  inspired  Word  of  God ;  others 
maintain  the  contraiy.  In  the  view  of  some  there 
is  a  God ;  others  maintain  the  contrary  of  even 
this.  True  is  it  that  such  differences  are  of  no 
secondary  importance.  There  is  nothing  serious 
and  mighty  in  the  whole  universe  if  they  are  not 
so.  If  there  are  any  things  on  which  it  is  useful 
and  essential  to  be  rightly  settled  in  judgment,  we 
undoubtedly  have  them  here.  Yet  here  there  is 
division.  What  shall  be  said  to  this  ?  To  the  man 
who  feels  tempted  to  stumble  at  this  most  sad  and 
disastrous  fact  what  shall  be  argued  ?  I  cannot 
deny  that  it  is  a  fact  in  many  points  of  view  most 
afflicting  and  appalling;  that  famine,  earthquake, 
pestilence,  and  war  are  not  half  so  grievous  and 
desolatino;.  But  still  there  is  less  to  be  made  of 
it,  as  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  rock  of  offense  in 
certain  directions,  than  some  are  apt  to  imagine. 
Does  the  existence  of  these  conflicts  of  opinion  show 
them  to  be  necessary?  Docs  the  fact  that  some 
people  call  in  question  the  Newtonian  system  of 
astronomy  show  that  nothing  can  be  certainly 
known  respecting  its  truth  ?  Men  of  sense  in  some 
things  have  been  known  to  dispute  the  fundamental 
principles  of  Geometry  ;  —  does  this  show  that  un- 
certainty inevitably  rests  on  all  the  conclusions  of 
Euclid?  Men  of  genius  in  some  things  have  ques- 
tioned the  existence  of  matter ;  —  does  this  show  that 
no  one  is  entitled  to  speak  with  confidence  of  out- 


12  VARIOUS  OPINIONS. 

standing  forests,  cities,  mountains,  stars  ?  Men 
have  advocated  with  appearance  of  sincerity  an  un- 
mitigated despotism  ;  —  does  this  show  that  no  one 
knows  liberty  to  be  a  good  thing  ?  Men  have 
argued  with  apparent  conviction  that  our  society  of 
separate  properties  and  homes  were  better  resolved 
into  one  unqualified  communism  ;  —  does  this  show 
that  no  one  knows  the  doctrine  to  be  an  unqualified 
abomination  ?  And  when  people  come  forward  to 
attack  Theism  and  Christianity  and  the  leading 
Scripture  doctrines,  must  I  straightway  conclude 
that  the  whole  subject  is  involved  in  such  doubt  as 
ordinary  men  at  least  are  unable  to  resolve  ?  Must 
I  qualify  every  doctrine  of  my  creed  with  a  Per- 
haps^ because  somebody  can  be  found  uninstructed 
enough  or  hardy  enough  to  set  battle  in  array  against 
it?  Among  men  of  character  who  have  carefully 
studied  the  subject  of  religion  there  is  probably  no 
more  conflict  of  opinion  on  its  fundamental  principles 
than  there  is  among  those  who  have  well  studied 
the  natural  and  exact  sciences  on  what  is  funda- 
mentally true  in  them.  More  turn  their  attention  to 
the  one  subject  than  to  the  others,  and  so  we  are  to 
expect  more  instances  of  dissent  in  the  first  case  as 
well  as  more  instances  of  agreement ;  but  lam  in- 
clined  to  think  that  in  both  cases  the  ratio  of  dissent 
to  agreement  is  substantially  the  same.  As  no  man 
allows  himself  to  be  troubled  about  his  mathematics, 
or  other  science,  because  he  finds  people  to  dispar- 
age, to  misunderstand,  and  to  reject  even  its  more 


WHY  NOT?  13 

important  features ;  so  let  no  one  allow  himself  to 
be  troubled  about  his  religion  because  men  here 
and  there  make  liglit  of,  misconceive,  and  deny 
even  its  gravest  doctrines. 

o 

So  far  from  showing  it  to  be  impossible  to  reach 
any  decisive  knowledge  of  the  truth  of  these  doc- 
trines, the  conflict  of  opinion  respecting  them  does 
not  even  show  that  there  is  any  difficulty  in  reaching 
that  knowledge.  What  is  easier  to  be  known  than 
that  human  bodies  are  before  me,  and  that  a  hewed 
and  jointed  framework  of  timber  surrounds  me  ? 
Yet  intelligent  men  exist  who  would  question  even 
that.  Is  it  hard  to  perceive  that  the  laws  of  nature 
and  the  facts  of  physical  science  are  something  more 
than  the  relations  of  ideas  ?  Yet  able  men  will 
contradict  you  even  there.  Are  you  puzzled  to 
pronounce  upon  the  merits  of  agrarianism  and  tyr- 
anny ?  And  yet  you  need  not  go  half  round  the 
world  to  find  a  plenty  of  logicians  to  advocate  to 
you  these  patent  absurdities.  That  there  is  a  God, 
that  Jesus  Clu'ist  is  His  Divine  Son,  that  the  Scrip- 
tures are  His  infallible  word,  that  men  are  held  to 
awful  account  at  His  bar  for  all  their  conduct,  that 
there  is  no  salvation  for  the  sinner  except  on  account 
of  an  atoning  Calvary  and  through  an  influential 
faith  wrought  by  a  Divine  Spirit  —  all  these  may  be 
among  the  plainest  truths  in  the  world  though  they 
are  spoken  against.  There  is  nothing  in  the  fact 
that  they  are  contradicted  by  some  intelligent  men 
which  shows  that  they  are  more  than  a  single  re- 


14  VARIOUS  OPINIONS. 

move  from  the  region  of  axioms.  Some  believe 
that  they  are  quite  intuitions  to  an  honest  and  re- 
newed heart ;  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  clashing 
of  opinion  around  them  to  show  that  they  are  not 
intuitions  to  everybody. 

^  But  there  is  a  consideration  still  more  fitted  to 
relieve  our  minds  in  view  of  the  various  conflicting 
opinions  on  the  more  important  points  of  religion. 
I  have  said  that  these  differences  do  not  show  that 
we  are  necessarily  shut  up  on  those  points  to  uncer- 
tainty. I  have  said  that  they  do  not  even  show 
that  clearness  and  even  certainty  are  not  easily 
attainable.  I  now^  go  still  further  and  say  that, 
notwithstanding  all  the  observed  variance  and  dis- 
putation, the  most  fundamental  questions  of  religion 
may  be  truly  and  satisfactorily  decided  by  the 
weaker  class  of  minds.  It  is  not  for  the  few  talented 
who  can  pass  by  a  glance  to  the  depths  of  abstruse 
subjects  that  I  make  this  claim,  but  for  the  many 
also  who  swell  the  ranks  of  mediocrity  and  inferior- 
ity, down  almost  to  where  the  light  of  reason  alto- 
gether vanishes.  It  is  not  for  the  man  of  leisure  who 
can  devote  all  his  time  to  investigation  that  I  claim 
it,  but  for  those  also  who  must  get  their  daily  bread 
by  the  daily  sweat  of  their  faces.  All  such  may,  by 
a  certain  way  which  the  Bible  points  out,  surely  and 
speedily  answer  for  themselves  all  the  grand  ques- 
tions of  religion.  See,  I  pray  you,  how  all  these 
doubters  and  disputants  may  come  to  entire  and 
swift  unanimity!    All  they  have  to  do  is,  after  such 


WHY  NOT?  16 

measure  of  ability  as  they  have,  to  set  themselves 
honestly  and  carefully  to  break  off  all  known  sin, 
and  to  seek  and  pray  for  light  and  goodness  at  the 
hands  of  at  least  a  possible  God.  This,  according  to 
the  Bible,  will  soon  bring  discovery  of  God,  faith  in 
Jesus,  a  renewed  character,  and  light  on  all  main 
religious  questions.  For  the  Bible  plainly  teaches, 
profusely  and  throughout, '  that  God  will  be  found 
of  those  who  seek  Him ;  that  they  who  do  His  will 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus,  whether  it  be 
of  God  ;  that  He  now  commands  all  men  every- 
where to  repent  without, postponement ;  that  divine 
power  has  given  to  penitents  all  things  that  pertain 
to  life  and  godliness  through  the  power  of  Him  who 
has  called  them  to  glory  and  virtue.'  You  see  how 
unreservedly  the  Bible  puts  itself  in  our  hands. 
The  least  such  statements  can  mean  is  that  all  true 
Christians  have  sufficient  light  on  chief  points  of  re- 
ligious doctrine ;  and  that  every  man  may  become 
a  true  Christian  without  any  considerable  delay. 
Let  men  faithfully  try  the  way.  It  engages  to  scat- 
ter all  their  principal  perplexities.  It  engages  to 
give  them  at  least  the  beginning  of  a  true  faith.  If 
it  does  not,  then  they  know  that  the  Bible  speaks 
false ;  that  Jesus  is  no  God  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
made  no  atonement,  is  an  impostor ;  even  that  a 
good  God  does  not  exist  to  reward  them  who  dili- 
gently seek  Him  ;  that  men  are  entitled  to  withhold 
faith  from  all  the  leading  and  peculiar  Christian 
doctrines.     So,  in  either  case,  the  main  questions  are 


16  VARIOUS  OPINIONS. 

settled  —  according  to  the  Bible  in  the  one  case, 
against  the  Bible  in  the  other.  Behold  the  supreme 
way  of  investigation  !  Behold  a  way  the  humblest 
and  most  hindered  can  take  —  a  way  for  any  of 
your  friends,  if  unhappily  they  need  it,  out  of  the 
painful  tossings  of  unbelief  into  the  repose  of  positive 
faith!  Do  not  fail  to  have  them  use  this  Calculus 
of  relitrion. 

Am  I  somewhat  timid  in  saying  this  —  lest  some 
one  should  take  advice,  and  seek  relief  by  this  ex- 
perimental method,  and  then  decide  against  the 
Bible  and  its  fundamental  teachings  ?  Do  not  think 
it.  1  am  just  as  brave  in  giving  this  method  to  you 
as  the  Bible  is  in  giving  it  to  me.  It  boldly  stakes 
itself  upon  it.  Tliere  is  not  a  quaver  of  misgiving 
in  its  stately  voice  as  it  deliberately  faces  all  hori- 
zons and  says  in  all  tongues.  Try  it !  It  knows  what 
the  result  will  be.  And  1  know.  Faithfully  tried, 
this  method  will  not  only  answer  the  main  religious 
questions  for  doubters,  but  will  answer  them  as  the 
Bible  answers  them.  They  will  find  a  personal 
God.  They  will  find  a  written  revelation  from\ 
Him.  They  will  find  in  man  an  undone  race,  and 
in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  a  Divine  Saviour.  They  will 
find  repentance  and  faith  linking  sinners  to  the  re- 
deeming cross  —  a  repentance  and  faith  whose  source 
is  divine  as  well  as  human.  I  promise  you  that 
they  will.  I  promise  them  speedy  faith  in  all  these 
things  ;  not  faith  at  its  very  ripest  and  royalist, 
perhaps,  especially  at  the  beginning ;  but  genuine 


WHY  NOT?  17 

faith,  faith  sufficient  for  practical  guidance,  a  faith 
so  strong  that  one  can  reasonably  base  on  it  the 
conduct  of  a  lifetime  and  the  destinies  of  an  eternity. 
And,  generally,  let  none  of  you  be  stumbled  at 
the  profuse  religious  dissent  that  you  meet  with  in 
the  course  of  your  liearing  and  reading.  Tliis  dis- 
sent is  according  to  the  way  of  the  world.  It  does 
not  show  that  nothing  can  be  known  in  religious 
matters.  It  does  not  ev^en  show  that  one  may  not 
know  to  perfect  certainty  and  with  profoundest  ease. 
Nay,  it  does  not  even  show  that  such  entire  and 
easy  certainty  is  not  within  reach  of  the  narrowest 
and  most  hindered  minds.  Many  of  these  so-called 
opinions  are  unreal  ;  many  relate  to  secondiiiy 
matters  ;  and  those  which  relate  to  things  primary 
and  essential  are  matched  by  an  equal  variety  in 
regard  to  the  surest  and  easiest  matters  of  observa- 
tion and  science,  and  can  demonstrably  be  reduced 
to  a  unit  by  a  plain  practical  method  which  the 
Christian  Scriptures  furnish.  So  do  not  be  dis- 
turbed. You  have  no  occasion.  No  man  should 
be  stumbled  at  such  things  who  believes  in  his 
senses,  in  his  consciousness,  and  in  that  glorious 
round  of  the  natural  and  exact  sciences  which 
crowns  so  imperially  the  present  age. 


II. 
GENERAL  ASSENT 


\ 

TO 


FUNDAMENTALS. 


I.  THE  FACT 


II.     General  Assent  to  Fundamentals. 

21 


2.  EXPLAINED 23 

3.  NEGLECTED 26 

4.  ENFORCED 28 

5.  RELATED   TO  OURSELVES 3' 


GENERAL   ASSENT  TO   FUNDAMENTALS. 

/CERTAIN  religious  doctrines  command  the  gen- 
^^  eral  assent  of  tliose  to  whom  tliey  have  been 
submitted ;  especially  of  well-informed-,  thoughtful, 
moral  men.  Belief  in  a  Supreme  Being  indefinitely 
superior  to  man  and  worthy  of  worship,  has  been 
substantially  universal  in  all  known  nations  and 
ages.  The  same  is  true  of  a  belief  in  the  fallen 
state  of  human  nature,  in  its  responsibleness,  in  the 
Divine  placability,  and  in  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and  punishments.  Further,  the  Scriptures  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament  are  almost  universally  re- 
ceived as  a  divine  message  wherever  they  can  prop- 
erly be  said  to  be  known  ;  especially  among  culti- 
vated and  well-living  men  who  have  gone  into  a 
formal  examination  of  their  claims.  And  there  is 
also  a  substantial  agreement  among  such  men  as  to 
what  are  the  main  teachings  of  the  Scriptures.  Not 
one  in  ten  thousand  but  will  say  that  they  teach  an 
intense  sinfulness  of  men,  the  necessity  of  regener- 
ation by  a  Divine  power,  an  atonement  for  sin  in 
the  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  one  way  of  ap- 
propriating that  atonement  by  repentance  and  faith. 
The  unbelief  on  these  points  is  a  mere  nothing  com- 
pared with  the  belief.  The  handful  of  objectors  is 
lost  amid  the  crowds  of  affirming  Christendom, 


22       GENERAL  ASSENT  TO  FUNDAMENTALS. 

No  such  concord  can  be  found  on  other  moral 
subjects.  Ask  for  the  history  of  human  opinion  on 
main  points  of  government.  Inquire  what  has  been 
tliought  about  health  and  the  treatment  of  disease. 
Follow,  if  you  can,  the  course  of  speculation  on  the 
subject  of  education  —  its  principles  and  practice. 
Let  the  inquiry  be  extended  to  such  matters  as  art 
and  literature  and  eloquence  ;  and  see  what  views 
men  have  held  as  to  what  is  beautiful  and  excellent 
in  these  fields.  You  shall  not  find  a  main  principle 
in  any  of  them,  which,  through  all  known  nations 
and  ages,  has  commanded  substantially  unanimous 
assent,  even  among  scholarly  and  candid  investiga- 
tors of  the  first  class.  What  is  the  best  form  of  gov- 
ernment, and  how  to  best  administer  it ;  what  is 
health  and  how  to  best  maintain  and  recover  it  — 
take  note  how  variously  questions  like  these  have 
been,  and  still  are,  answered  by  the  best  and  most 
competei>t  men;  and  find,  if  you  can,  a  single  lead- 
ing principle,  not  proved  by  direct  sensation,  on 
which  virtually  the  whole  world,  so  far  as  the  case 
has  been  fairly  submitted  to  them,  are  agreed.  But 
the  moment  we  pass  over  to  the  religious  field  we  find 
ourselves  breathing  an  essentially  new  air.  It  is  one 
general  concord  as  to  main  underlying  principles. 
Is  there  a  God  ?  Yes  —  says  a  chorus  that  is  es- 
sentially and  to  all  intents  and  purposes  unbroken 
from  all  sorts  of  times  and  countries  and  persons. 
Are  men  responsible  in  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and    punishments  ?      No   doubt  —  answer   all   the 


EXPLAINED.  23 

points  of  the  compass  in  such  a  flood  of  sound  as  quite 
drowns  out  of  account  any  few  notes  of  dissent  that 
rise  here  and  there.  What  ahout  the  Bible  ;  is  it 
God's  infallible  message  ?  Most  certainly  —  comes 
swiftly  back  upon  us  for  answer  from  Grecists  and 
Romanists  and  Protestants  and  Moslems  even  ;  from 
all  the  countries  and  times  to  which  the  Book  has 
been  fully  submitted  ;  from  all  civilized  and  en- 
lightened lands ;  from  substantially  all  those  men 
of  culture  and  character  in  these  lands  who  have 
given  the  subject  anything  that  deserves  to  be  called 
an  examination.  So  of  the  main  doctrines  which 
the  Bible  adds  to  the  religion  of  Nature.  When 
we  ask,  Was  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  Is  man 
in  a  ruined  state.  Did  Christ  die  for  him,  Must  he  be 
renewed  by  a  divine  agency  to  repentance  and  faith 
in  order  to  be  saved  from  sin  and  wretchedness  be- 
yond the  grave  ?  then  all  the  great  Christian  De- 
nominations, and  substantially  all  scholarly  examiners 
of  the  Bible,  exclaim  with  one  voice.  Such  most 
certainly  is  the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures. 

I  am  disposed  to  lay  stress  on  this  grand  and  un- 
wonted consent  of  human  nature,  and  especially  of 
well-ordered  and  cultured  and  examining  human 
nature,  to  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  religion.  It 
seems  to  me  very  suggestive.  Are  these  cardinal 
things  so  at  one  with  the  general  reason  of  the 
world  and  with  the  special  reason  of  fair-minded 
and  actually  investigating  scholars  —  or  does  some 
Supreme  so  interest  Himself  to  make  them  stand  out 


24      GENERAL  ASSENT  TO  FUNDAMENTALS. 

like  huge  sunlit  promontories  to  the  gaze  of  all  who 
will  open  faithful  eyes  upon  them  ?     Depend  upon 
it,  there  is  sometliiug  here  worth  attenticm.   Depend 
upon  it,  the  unbeliever  will  do  nothing  ulireason- 
able  if  he  opens  widely  his  eyes.     What  means  this 
giant  consent  whose  long  arms  so  cleanly  sweep  into 
its  motherly  bosom  all  sections  of  mankind,  and  the 
rarest  fruits  of  character  and  culture  from  all  lands 
and  times?     Say  that  it  is  something  to  be  pon- 
dered.    Even  say  that  it  is  something  fitted  most 
admirably  to  encourage  belief  and  discourage  disbe- 
lief.    Of  course  the  verdict  of  a  single  man  on  any 
topic  is  not  worth  as  much  as  that  of  many   men 
equally  dowered  and  empowered  in  every  pertinent 
direction.     Much  less  is  the  verdict  of  the  single 
man  worth  as  much  as  that  of  many  men  of  great- 
ly superior   powers  and  opportunities ;  say,   if  you 
please,  of  all   such    men.     Had  we   some  secular 
question  to  decide  in  view  of  such  unequally  com- 
peting opinions  w^e  should  make  short  work  of  it. 
Suppose  a  man  of  only   moderate  faculty    at  lan- 
guages, and  who  has  been  studying  the  Greek  lan- 
guage for   only  a  few^  months,   is  puzzling  out  the 
meaning  of  a  Greek  sentence.     Whatever  decision 
he  may  reach  will  be  oi  no  weight  compared  with 
that  of  the   great  body  of  ripe  and  accomplished 
Greek  scholars  —  fully  studying  and  at  last  agree- 
ing in   their  judgment.     And   how  much    weight 
should  any  common  inquirer  into  religious  doctrine 
allow  his  own  independent  verdict  as  against  such  a 


EXPLAINED.  25 

combination  of  numbers,  genius,  knowledge,  and 
character  as  tlirougli  the  long  ages  sustain  the 
chief  doctrines  of  religion  ?  Here  is  the  safest 
verdict  for  him  to  take,  save  that  of  his  own  per- 
sonal experience.  He  may  by  actually  embracing 
the  practice  of  religion  subject  these  doctrines  to 
the  supreme  test  of  experience.  He  will  reach 
what  has  long  been  known  under  the  name  of  ex- 
'perimental  acquaintance  with  the  truth.  He  will, 
as  it  were,  sensationize  God,  His  written  message, 
and  other  main  things ;  will  feel  their  truth  by  a 
sort  of  delicate  instinct  —  a  thing  as  much  better 
than  dry  logical  inference  as  full  day  is  better  for 
business  than  stumbling  dawn.  But  he  needs  to  be 
put  up  to  this  high  method  of  experience.  He  must 
be  crowded  toward  it  by  some  fact  that  impressively 
suggests  the  probability  that  the  main  facts  assumed 
in  a  religious  course  are  all  real.  This  is  done  by 
the  maaniKcent  agreement  that  exists   amonf]^  men 

OCT  CT 

in  relation  to  them.  It  says.  Are  all  tliese  persons 
mistaken?  How  happens  it  that  mankind  agree  so 
unwontedly  in  accepting  doctrines  intrinsically  dis- 
agreeable ?  How  happens  it  that  among  competent, 
cultured,  and  well-deported  men  really  examining 
these  doctrines  the  verdict  is  substantially  all  one 
way  ?  And  as  it  queries  I  see  its  eye  light  up  with 
a  profound  significance.  I  see  its  great  hand  beck- 
oning toward  the  lieligion  which  comes  so  splen- 
didly recommended.  Never  was  there  such  quantity 
and  quality  of  certificate  !     Never  such  a  profusion 


26       GENERAL  ASSENT  TO  FUNDAMENTALS. 

and  glory  of  autographs  on  the  back  of  any  docu- 
ment !  One  sees  endorsed  and  engrossed  on  some 
of  the  chief  religious  doctrines  the  great  name  of 
Mankind ;  on  others  the  proud  glittering  iiames  of 
all  present  and  past  civilized  and  enlightened  na- 
tions under  whose  notice  they  have  fully  come  ; 
on  others  still,  and  indeed  on  all,  virtually  the  sum 
total  of  the  names  that  illuminate  history,  that  grace 
the  annals  of  learning  and  science  and  genius,  that 
tell  of  extraordinary  endowments  or  attainments  or 
worth  — just  so  far  as  they  have  submitted  these 
doctrines  to  any  suitable  examination. 

I  say  suitable  examination.  For  I  have  a  secret 
to  tell  you  ;  yet  not  altogether  a  secret.  Is  not 
yon  able  and  scholarly  man  an  unbeliever  ?  So  it 
appears :  but  then  you  are  to  understand  that  this 
able  man  has  never  examined  the  Christian  Evi- 
dences. I  declare  to  you  that  he  has  never  really 
applied  himself  to  find  out  the  facts  in  this  case.  You 
know  that  one  may  go  through  the  form  of  inves- 
tigation without  having  anything  of  the  reality. 
But  really,  ten  to  one,  this  man  has  not  undertaken 
even  the  form.  A  thousand  to  one,  he  has  never 
spent  on  this  Bible  an  hour  of  honest  probing  in- 
quiry. He  has  investigated  other  things  —  the 
botany,  the  astronomy,  the  politics,  the  finance  — 
and  is,  undoubted!}^,  in  these  matters  a  sagacious 
and  well-informed  man.  But  do  not  on  this  ac- 
count think  that  he  has  well  investigated  religion 
also.    Notliing  of  the  sort.  His  thoughts  have  floated 


NEGLECTED.  27 

about  the  subject,  more  or  less  ;  he  has,  in  a  loose, 
hap-hazard  way,  heard  and  read  more  or  less  about 
it ;  but  as  to  his  having  examined  it  in  the  manner 
of  a  candid  scholar  and  with  a  care  suited  to  its  im- 
portance, he  has  done  no  such  thing.  He  knows 
he  has  not.  Put  it  to  him — he  knows  helms 
not.  The  most  he  has  done  has  been  to  casu- 
ally touch  the  subject  here  and  there  ;  become  ac- 
quainted with  a  few  difficulties  such  as  embarrass 
every  subject  with  which  man  has  to  do ;  and,  in 
sympathy  with  them,  make  a  few  points  after  the 
manner  of  an  advocate.  This  is  all.  Witness  a 
not  inconsiderable  experience  and  observation  of 
my  own.  Witness,  I  think  I  may  confidently 
say,  the  experience  and  observation  of  as  many 
among  you  as  have  had  any  Experience  and  obser- 
vation at  all  in  such  matters.  And  together  we 
will  affirm  that  the  great  concord  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  and  to  which  I  have  called  attention  as  a 
most  suggestive  and  encouraging  fact  to  the  be- 
liever, is  not  at  all  discredited  nor  impaired  by  the 
cases  of  these  able  and  scholarly  unbelievers  who 
somehow  never  turn  their  ability  and  scholarship  in 
any  reasonable  and  sufficient  way  toward  religion. 
Now  these  great  principles  to  which  men  so  tes- 
tify as  Avith  one  voice  are  evidently  those  which  are 
to  be  chiefly  insisted  on  by  those  believing  in  them. 
The  ministers  of  religion  should  lay  their  chief 
stress  here.  Here  should  chief  stress  be  laid  by  re- 
ligious authors,  and  by  all  in  fact  who  talk  or  think 


28      GENERAL  ASSENT  TO  FUNDAMENTALS. 

on  religious  subjects.  It  may  be  safely  claimed  in 
behalf  of  the  evangelical  ministry,  that,  as  a  body, 
they  are  in  the  habit  of  acting  on  this  principle. 
In  their  preaching,  they  do  dwell  longest,  most  fre- 
quently, and  most  emphatically  on  these  great  and 
comparatively  unchallenged  fundamentals.  They 
touch  on  almost  all  profitable  topics.  They  have 
tlieir  words  and  even  sermons  on  secondary  points. 
But  their  strength  is  laid  out  on  such  main  doctrines 
as  we  have  been  considei'ing.  It  is  not  so  among 
religious  authors.  There  are  probably  many  more 
books  on  the  secondary  matters  which  are  in  dis- 
pute between  Christians  than  there  are  for  the  illus- 
tration and  enforcement  of  those  primary  matters  in 
which  all  agree.  But  it  is  in  conversation  and  lec- 
tures  and  the  transieiA  literature  of  newspapers  and 
pamphlets  that  the  true  principle  is  most  strikingly 
violated.  Here  difference  and  contention  rule  the 
day.  It  is  the  doctrines  on  which  capable  and  good 
men  divide,  rather  than  those  on  which  they  unite, 
which  attract  attention.  The  air  is  filled  with  the 
uproar  of  discordant  sentiments,  with  the  clash  of 
buffeting  and  rebuffeting  words  —  mostly  on  mat- 
ters comparatively  trifling.  And  when  men,  not 
practical  believers,  turn  their  attention  to  religion, 
they  are  very  apt  to  follow  this  example  and  notice 
the  topics  of  dissension  rather  than  the  topics  of 
agreement.  They  call  attention  to  how  many  creeds 
and  Denominations  there  are.  They  mention  the 
many  disputing  schools  of  theology.  They  instance, 


ENFORCED.  29 

perhaps,  scores  of  points  on  whicli  not  only  different 
nations  and  times  join  issue,  but  also  Christians. 
And  sometimes  they  tell  you  the  whole  matter  is 
confusion  confounded.  Nothing  but  war,  war  of 
breath  and  of  types,  listen  and  look  where  they 
will  !  So  they  infer  severe  things  of  religion  ;  as 
if  nothing  can  be  certainly  or  probably  known 
about  it,  and  as  if  the  thin  foam  of  the  sea  is  the 
sea  itself.  Is  this  as  it  should  be  ?  Why  do  not 
these  men  give  most  notice  to  those  great  primary 
matters  which  command  almost  universal  assent  ? 
Instead  of  noting  exclusively  or  chiefly  the  turmoil 
on  the  surface  of  the  sea,  is  it  not  tiieir  duty  to  note 
most  the  profound  quiet  that  reigns  everywhere 
below  in  the  clear  gem-haunted  depths  ?  Yes  ;  it 
is  here  men  should  chiefly  look.  Here  they  will 
find  first  things.  These  splendid,  illustrious,  deep- 
lying  affirmations,  over  which  the  general  assent  of 
mankind  is  breathing  its  peaceful  greetings,  are 
comparatively  everything.  Our  stumbled  men 
should  look  through  the  contentious  waves  and 
spume  of  the  surface  to  where,  at  the  bottom,  in 
clear  water  and  unvexed  repose,  not  sleep,  but  live 
and  glow  and  burn  the  foundation -pearl  and  ruby 
and  sapphire  truths  of  reHgion.  When  they  see 
the  world  torn  with  conflicting  opinions,  and  even 
Christians  differing  and  disputing,  let  them  remem- 
ber that  this  is  only  a  partial  view  of  the  case  ;  that 
there  is  a  world  of  unity  as  well  as  of  diversity,  a 
world   of  consent  as  well  as  of  dissent ;  and  that 


30  GENERAL  ASSENT  TO  FUNDAMENTALS. 

those  particulars  of  religious  faith  in  which  examin- 
hig  mankind,  and  especially  the  cultured  and  vir- 
tuous part  of  it,  agree,  are  the  cardinals  and  princes 
and  kings  of  them  all.  Here  is  the  true  Ecumenical. 
Here  is  the  real  Concord  of  the  Ages.  Here  is  the 
very  Choir  whose  members  are  kings,  whose  cathe- 
dral is  the  world,  and  whose  anthem  is  the  voice 
of  many  waters. 

I  join  my  voice  to  the  great  Concert  of  Faith.  It 
is  the  voice  of  my  instinct,  of  my  need,  of  my 
heart,  of  my  reason,  as  well  as  of  my  traditions.  It 
came  to  my  childhood  from  the  fathers.  From 
childhood  onward  it  commended  itself  to  my  ear  by 
certain  delicate  cadences  and  idioms  of  ti'uth,  better 
felt  than  expressed  ;  by  certain  nameless  proprieties 
and  adaptations  and  verisimilitudes,  wdiich,  like  the 
summer  dews,  will  not  bear  exposure  but  are  none 
the  less  real  for  that ;  by  certain  subtle  myriad  har- 
monies with  the  Nature  which  I  saw  without  me  and 
the  Nature  which  I  felt  within  me,  and  of  which  I 
became  aware  as  men  become  aware  of  a  healthy 
atmosphere  before  it  has  been  analyzed,  or  as  some 
animals  become  aware  of  the  presence  of  the  food 
that  is  suited  to  them  before  they  have  tasted  it.  At 
a  later  period  I  tested  it  after  the  manner  of  the 
scholar.  And  I  am  glad  to  tell  you  my  result.  That 
voice  of  the  fathers  is  a  true  voice.  That  voice  of 
the  fathers  is  a  grand  true  voice.  I  freely  adopt  it 
as  my  own.  I  send  it  forth  to  you  with  full  lungs. 
I  declare  to  vou  that  the  ancient  Jehovah  is  real.    I 


RELATED    TO    OURSELVES.  31 

declare  to  you  that  Jesus  is  His  messenger  Son.  I 
declare  to  you  that  the  Bible  is  His  inspired  Word  ; 
and  that  the  system  of  belief  known  as  the  evangel- 
ical is  a  true  summary  of  that  Word.  It  is  but  a 
small  contribution  that  I  make  to  that  sea  of  sound 
that  dashes  up  from  so  many  ages  and  nations,  but 
it  is  a  pleasure  to  make  it.  I  make  it  with  all  my 
heart.  I  round  out  my  voice  and  send  it  forth  upon 
you  to  match  the  loudest  of  those  choiring  testimo- 
nies. Would  that  I  could  orb  it  out  to  embrace  the 
whole  world  and  ^distant  ages  ! 

I  desire  to  believe  that  all  of  you  who  hear  me 
have  similar  views  and  feelings.  I  feel  that  some  of 
you  have.  In  the  great  concert  of  faith  you  are  pre- 
pared to  join  with  voices  as  decisive  and  superb  as 
any  you  can  hear  swelling  forth  from  the  lips  of  liv- 
ing men,  or  from  the  tombs  of  the  faithful  dead. 
Not  that  you  have  formally  examined  the  Evidences 
after  the  manner  of  the  schools.  You  know  by  a 
shorter  argument.  You  know  as  men  know  the 
food,  by  trying  it ;  as  men  know  the  sunlight,  by 
seeing  and  enjoying  with  it.  You  silently  feel  in 
this  Biblical  Religion  the  natural  counterpart  to 
human  nature  and  need.  You  almost  unconsciously 
take  into  account  the  suggestive  analogies  that  unite 
it  at  almost  every  point  with  the  general  system  of 
the  world,  and  divine  what  it  would  do  for  mankind 
if  cordially  and  universally  embraced.  And  so  you 
firmly  believe.  Most  warmly  do  I  congratulate 
you.     You  have  the  repose  of  settled  convictions. 


32     GENERAL  ASSENT  TO  FUNDAMENTALS. 

You  have  the  inspiration  of  immortal  hopes.  And 
your  quiet  present,  with  the  rainbow  on  its  horizon, 
is  held  in  common  with  a  great  and  goodlj  com- 
pany. You  have  with  you  the  wisest  and  best  of 
mankind.  With  you  are  the  conscientious  livers. 
With  you  are  the  praying  people.  With  you  are 
the  great  examples  of  love  and  pity  and  helpful- 
ness. With  you  are  the  lives  heroic  with  self- 
denial,  and  the  deaths  triumphant  with  hope.  With 
you  are  the  exact  students  and  scientists,  just  so  far 
as  they  can  be  moved  to  turn  learning  and  science 
in  the  direction  of  the  Evidences.  With  you  are 
the  purest  pleasures,  the  most  salutary  restraints 
and  the  best  promptings.  With  you  are  all  the 
healthy  ages,  all  the  healthy  peoples,  and  all  the 
healthy  traditions.  And  with  you  are  those  who 
have  been  anointed  with  sainthood  —  a  crystal 
elixir,  scented  as  spring,  whose  drops,  as  they  fall 
from  golden  cruse  on  transfigured  heads,  show  in 
their  clear  deeps  the  image  of  God,  and  cast  a 
rainbow  of  promise  far  away  on  the  great  To- 
Come. 

So  much  I  can  say  of  some  of  you.  If  there  are 
any  of  whom  I  cannot  say  it,  or  must  say  it  with 
abated  and  impoverished  language ;  if  some  of  you 
cannot  be  parties  to  this  great  consent,  or  are  back- 
ward in  joining  it,  or  cannot  join  it  with  that  grace- 
ful freeness  and  momentum  which  you  could  desire, 
I  am  sorry  for  you.  It  is  a  great  trouble.  And 
I  know  how  the  trouble  began.    The  fathers  taught 


RELATED    TO    OURSELVES.  33 

you  as  they  did  me.  The  same  subtle  ministries 
which  drew  my  childhood  faithward  di'ew  yours 
also.  But  your  natural  tastes  ran  against  the 
Religion,  you  grew  more  and  more  reluctant  to 
practice  it,  and  you  gradually  allowed  yourselves  to 
hear  manyr  conflicting  opinions  without  investigating 
any.  This  brought  up  the  fogs  upon  you  like  an 
east  wind.  The  things  we  do  not  like  we  are. will- 
ing to  have  become  doubtful,  and  what  we  are 
willing  to  have  doubtful  readily  becomes  so  when 
we  resign  ourselves  with  uncritical  ears  to  all 
manner  of  cavils  and  objections.  You  probablv 
have  heard  unbelieving  speakers.  You  probably 
have  read  unbelieving  books  and  journals.  You 
have  heard  and  read  without  examining.  This  is 
how  you  gradually  came  to  stand  apart  from  the 
great  consent.  Here  is  the  secret  of  the  no-faith, 
or  the  weak  faith,  or  the  faith  less  pronounced  than 
you  could  desire  ;  and  it  gives  a  hint  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  you  must,  if  ever,  find  your  way  back 
to  due  faith.  Among  other  things,  you  will  have  to 
take  heed  what  you  hear  ;  and  become  slow  to  open 
your  ears  to  everything  men  can  be  bold  enough  to 
speak  to  you,  and  your  eyes  to  everything  men  can 
be  bold  enough  to  print  for  you.  You  will  have  to 
assure  yourselves  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  you  to 
taste  poisons  freely  and  always  in  order  to  know 
them  to  be  poisons,  or  to  try  on  yourselves  the  points 
of  the  various  weapons  of  death  in  order  to  know 
that  they  will  kill.     There  is  a  better  way. 


III. 
A    SAD    EXCEPTION 


III.     A  Sad  Exception. 

1.  ILLUSTRATIONS 37 

2.  DOUBT  ON    FUNDAMENTALS 4I 

3.  DOING   NOTHING 42 

4.  DEPLORABLE    .........  44 


A   SAD   EXCEPTION. 

TIT  HEN  we  see  a  ship  that  has  just  finished  its 
"  ^  voyage  lying  all  reposefiilly  at  anchor  —  the 
masts  bare,  the  ropes  and  sails  stored  away,  the 
sailors  reclining  at  their  ease  along  the  decks  —  the 
sight  does  not  strike  us  unfavorably.  That  ship  has 
earned  the  right  to  rest.  It  has  done  its  work  ;  it 
has  been  for  months  battling  with  the  winds  and 
waves  of  the  ocean  on  its  appointed  route  of  voy- 
ages ;  it  has  fought  its  way  faithfully  through  to 
port  with  its  cargo ;  and  now  it  is  every  way  fit- 
ting and  graceful  and  honorable  that  the  good  ship 
should  lie  for  a  while  at  its  ease  in  the  quiet  and 
sunny  roadstead. 

After  the  well-fought  campaign,  who  blames  the 
tired  army  that  has  gone  into  winter-quarters  ? 
There,  day  after  day,  flap  the  banners  idly  against 
the  rooted  flag-staffs ;  there,  day  after  day,  the 
white  tents  and  the  bronzed  men  lie  alonff  the  same 
droning  fields  —  eating,  drinking,  sleeping,  talking, 
basking,  resting ;  for  weeks  together  those  soldiers 
perform  not  a  drill  and  fire  not  a  musket.  I  say, 
who  blames  them  ?     In  their  circumstances  repose 


38  A   SAD  EXCEPTION. 

is  becoming.  They  have  been  marching  and  watch- 
ing and  fighting  and  conquering  for  many  months ; 
they  have  faithfully  and  gloriously  done  the  work 
they  were  set  to  do  ;  and  now  they  have  a  right  to 
repose,  and  the  country  does  not  object  to  hear  that 
all  is  quiet  on  the  Potomac. 

If  during  all  his  youth  and  maturity  a  man  has 
exerted  himself  with  spirit  in  some  honorable  and 
useful  calling,  duly  taxing  body  and  mind  to  fill  to 
the  best  advantage  the  sphere  in  society  assigned 
him,  and  now  that  he  is  old  unbraces  himself  some- 
what from  the  strife  of  life  and  betakes  himself  to 
the  quiet  arm-chair  of  rest  and  contemplation  — 
are  we  disgusted,  do  we  feel  authorized  to  utter  a 
single  word  of  remonstrance  ?  Far  from  it.  It  is 
all  right,  suitable,  graceful,  necessary,  to  unbend 
at  the  falling  of  the  evening.  From  sunrise  till 
now  he  has  fulfilled  Nature's  law,  and  strenuously 
wrought :  now  that  the  shadows  are  settling  on  the 
fields  it  is  his  privilege  to  lay  aside  his  tools,  and 
enter  his  house,  and  sit  down  to  rest.  Let  him 
take  a  Sabbath,  as  the  Scriptural  God  is  said  to 
have  done  when  He  had  finished  His  creating. 

Repose  after  achievement  —  when  the  thing  to 
be  done  is  finished,  or  has  been  carried  as  far  as  the 
jaded  powers  will  permit  —  will  be  justified  on  all 
hands.  But  what  shall  I  say  of  repose  before 
achievement  —  before  the  work  is  half  done,  before 
anything  has  been  done,  and  while  the  laboring 
powers  are    altogether  vigorous   and  even  fresh  ? 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  39 

We  do  not  apply  fair-sounding  terms  to  that.  No 
healthily  constituted  mind  would  think  of  calling 
such  inaction  fitting,  graceful,  honorable.  Men 
wonder  at  the  well-appointed  ship  that  stays  idly 
rocking  in  the  harbor,  season  after  season,  without 
having  made  a  single  voyage.  They  wonder  at  the 
well-appointed  army  that,  season  after  season,  hugs 
the  same  quiet  camp-ground  without  having  seen  a 
day  of  that  actual  service  for  the  sake  of  which  it 
was  mustered.  They  wonder  at  the  able-bodied 
and  able-minded  person  who  has  yet  his  place  to 
make  in  the  world,  but  who  lounges  out  his  youth 
and  lounges  out  his  manhood  without  an  attempt  to 
turn  himself  to  some  account.  —  Is  it  far  advanced 
day  ;  and  yet  not  a  stroke  of  work  done  in  the 
needy  field,  for  my  needy  family,  for  my  needy 
self;  nothing  but  reclining,  drowsing,  basking  in 
the  sun,  while  other  men  in  my  circumstances  have 
been  hours  abroad  strivincr  out  a  living: ;  nothing 
but  resting  before  work  as  wearied  men  are  honor- 
ably wont  to  do  after  work  ?  If  I  am  without 
hands,  if  I  am  sick,  if  I  am  imprisoned,  none 
shall  blame  me.  Otherwise,  next  to  none  will  jus- 
tify me.  It  is  idle,  it  is  discreditable,  it  is  matter 
for  shame  —  to  rest  before  doing  anything.  For 
rest  after  work  none  blush,  nor  have  occasion  to 
blush.  It  is  the  law  of  Nature.  It  as  much 
belongs  to  the  structure  and  scope  of  the  scheme 
under  which  we  live  as  does  the  cominor  of  eveninix 
after  day.     But  resting  before  working — who  will 


40  A  SAD  EXCEPTION. 

venture  to  stand  up  for  that  ?  It  shall  be  scouted. 
Hard  things  shall  be  said  of  it.  No  man  shall  do 
himself  credit  bv  practicing  it  or  defending  it. 

Apply  these  illustrations  to  matters  that  most 
nearly  concern  us.  To  settle  the  main  religious 
questions  correctly  and  to  act  accordingly,  is  as  much 
our  human  business  as  it  is  the  business  of  a  ship  to 
iDjike  voyages,  or  of  an  army  to  fight  battles.  It 
is  what  we  are  made  for,  if  we  are  made  for  anything. 
Nothing  we  do  in  this  world  is  of  any  account  in 
comparison  with  this,  and  only  as  it  bears  on  this. 
It  is  an  insult  to  the  good  sense  of  a  man  to  suppose 
that  he  does  not  see  this  as  soon  as  it  is  stated  to 
him.  It  is  an  insult  to  the  prudence  of  a  man  to 
suppose  that  he  allows  such  a  fact  to  slip  out  of  his 
memory,  or  to  remain  uninfliiential  on  his  conduct. 

Some  persons  refuse  to  commit  such  an  impru- 
dence. Finding  themselves,  somehow,  without  set- 
tled religious  convictions  on  chief  matters,  they 
refuse  to  content  themselves  in  such  a  state.  They 
set  themselves  vigorously  to  work.  They  study  to 
know  the  "place  where  light  dwelleth."  They 
inquire  of  all  points  of  the  compass.  They  labor 
at  honesty  of  heart,  labor  at  correct  life,  labor  at 
prayer,  labor  along  the  lines  of  Nature,  to  see  if  ^ 
God  and  Christ  and  a  Written  Revelation  can  be 
clearly  and  brightly  known.  Against  natural  slug- 
gishness, against  example,  against  the  snares  of 
pleasure  and  business  and  habit,  they  put  them- 
selves into  harness  and  fight.     Thus  the  voyaging 


DOUBT  ON  FUNDAMENTALS.  41 

ship  buff'ets,  in  the  way  of  its  mission,  the  waves 
and  winds  of  ocean :  and  thus,  in  the  way  of  its 
mission,  the  army  goes  marching  and  sieging  and 
batthng.  And,  as  tlie  one  after  its  voyaging  is 
done  rides  quietly  in  })ort  witliout  blame  and  even 
with  honor;  and,  as  the  other  when  its  campaign- 
ing is  done  settles  down  properly  and  creditably 
in  the  profound  repose  of  its  winter-camp ;  so, 
if  these  men  shall  fairly  win  their  way  into  clear 
and  influential  faith  in  the  Biblical  Religion,  then 
it  is  a  fitting  and  fair  thinoj,  to  be  censured  by 
nobody,  that  they  should  dismiss  their  cares  and 
struggles,  and,  as  it  were,  ride  peacefully  in  the 
secure  port  they  have  gained.  They  have  d(»iie 
their  work.  The  imperative  examination  is  behind 
them.  It  is  beautiful  and  fitting  that  a  Sal)- 
bath  should  follow  their  working  days.  All  the 
proprieties  vote  them  a  rest.  The  soul  ioosens 
its  girdle,  smooths  out  the  care-wrinkles  from  its 
features,  stretches  itself  at  its  ease  in  sheltered 
nook  and  warm  sunshine  of  hopes  and  comforts  and 
pleasant  thoughts,  perhaps  quietly  sings  an  accom- 
paniment to  its  cheerful  repose  ;  and  it  is  all  right, 
suitable,  just  what  was  to  have  been  expected  and 
desired,  just  the  thing  to  pronounce  benedictions 
upon. 

But  then  there  is  another  class  who  insist  on 
resting  before  working.  As  yet  the  great  questions 
are  unanswered  by  them.  They  are  still  in  doubt 
over  the  Bible,  over  a  Saviour,  over  a  God  even. 


42  A   SAD  EXCEPTION. 

Ill  their  minds  one  giant  interrogation  point  stands 
beliind  the  whole  Bibhcal  theology.  And  yet  they 
are  doing  nothing  —  never  have  been  doing  any- 
thing. They  are  riding  at  anchor.  Sails  are  all 
laid  away.  Ship-forces  are  lying  at  their  ease 
about  the  decks.  Holiday  sounds  of  song  and 
light-hearted  converse  and  conviviality  occasionally 
float  abroad  from  them.  One  would  think  they 
have  nothing  to  do.  Where  are  the  anxious  looks  ? 
Where  is  the  eye  of  grave  and  vigilant  resolution  ? 
Where  are  the  solitary  meditations,  the  careful 
readings,  the  anxious  counsel-takings  with  wise  and 
good  men,  tlie  fervent  prayers  to  the  possible  Light? 
Where  are  the  contests  with  sluggishness,  with 
trifles  and  affairs,  with  the  strong  example  of  a 
trifling  and  delaying  world  ?  Nothing  of  the  sort 
is  to  be  seen.  Are  they  without  the  requisite  fac- 
ulties ^or  thoroughly  examining  the  Evidences?  If 
so,  we  cannot  blame  tliem  —  we  deplore  them.  Are 
they  irresistibly  kept  from  the  use  of  faculties  in 
themselves  sufficient  by  the  hamperings  of  circum- 
stances ?  If  so,  we  cannot  blame  their  guilt ;  we 
can  only  lament  their  misfortune.  But  neither 
trouble  exists.  "  They  have  the  same  powers  and 
circumstances  as  multitudes  who  have  striven  their 
way  into  great  faith  ;  nay,  into  faith  of  the  most 
magnificent  pattern.  And  yet  here  they  are, 
dreamily  lying  at  anchor,  reposing  at  random  as  if 
in  winter-quarters — perhaps  shaking  the  air  with 
holiday  cheerfulness    and    merriment  —  life's  great 


DOING  NOTHING.  43 

work  still  unbegun  and  all  the  powers  for  a  sacred 
investioration  still  fresh  witliin  them.  Thev  are 
resting  before  they  have  done  anythifig.  They 
are  reposing  before  achievement,  instead  of  after. 
What  shall  we  say  to  repose  of  this  kind? 

Let  us  say  that  it  is  unseasonable. 

Repose  is  not  to  be  objected  to  —  only  it  must  not 
be  misplaced.  Doing  nothing  when  there  is  no 
need  of  rest,  but,  on  the  contrary,  great  need  of 
prompt  and  vigorous  labor,  is  vastly  out  of  season. 
It  is  a  discord.  It  mars  the  situation.  It  is  an 
offense  against  symmetry  and  the  essential  nature 
of  things.  Have  you  really  struggled  so  hard  at 
the  Evidences  that  there  is  no  longer  any  struggling 
faculty  left  in  you  ?  You  will  hardly  say  this,  my 
friend ;  for  you  will  remember  that  your  prayers, 
if  real,  have  always  been  of  the  briefest  and  feeblest, 
your  religious  meditations  only  occasional  and  mo- 
mentary, your  actual  efforts  to  test  the  Religion 
whose  shadow  covers  half  the  world,  a  mere  noth- 
ing. You  and  I  both  know  it  equally  well  —  you 
have  never  taken  any  pains  at  this  point  at  all  pro- 
portioned to  its  consequence.  And  the  time  is 
urgent.  Your  great  life-work  is  still  entirely  before 
you  ;  and  how  much  time  you  will  have  to  do  it  in 
no  tongue  can  tell.  The  Scripture,  which,  to  say 
the  least,  has  many  looks  of  the  true  and  divine 
about  it,  insists  on  your  pushing  your  inquiries 
now.  Men,  experienced  and  enlightened  in  such 
matters,  call  to  you  and  insist  upon  now.     What 


44  A  SAD  EXCEPTION. 

observation  of  otliers  has  taught  you,  what  experi- 
ence with  your  own  heart  has  taught  you,  is  all 
against  the  plan  of  resting  now  and  working  by  and 
by;  You  confess  to  your  own  hearts  —  how  well 
do  I  know  it  —  that,  of  all  investigations,  this  of 
the  Evidences  deserves  tlie  first  place.  Everything 
seems  to  say.  Attend  at  once  to  the  great  unsettled 
business  ;  Up,  weigh  anchor  and  spread  sails  for  the 
science  of  Religion  ;  Up,  break  camp  and  march, 
through  conflicts,  if  need  be,  to  the  repose  of  settled 
faith  ! 

Let  U8  %ay  that  it  is  dangeroua. 

It  is,  perhaps,  as  common  for  men  to  incur 
worldly  disasters  by  not  acting  at  all  as  by  acting 
wrongly.  Ignorance  seems  to  have  quite  as  many 
victims  as  error.  Many  a  battle  has  been  lost 
while  commanders  have  doubted  and  hesitated  — 
lost  just  as  conclusively  and  fearfully  as  if  by  one 
atrocious  error  they  had  confidently  plunged  their 
armies  into  battle  against  all  the  principles  of  mili- 
tary science.  Many  a  fortune  has  been  sunk  while 
the  owner  has  leisurely  hesitated  over  a  safer  in- 
vestment—  sunk  just  as  totally  and  ruinously  as  if 
it  had  been  embarked  without  misgiving  in  some 
frantic  speculation.  —  See  you  this  man  in  a  flaming 
building  !  If  he  doubts  the  reality  of  the  fire,  and 
makes  no  examination  to  test  the  truth  of  those 
loud  cries  of  alarm  which  are  ringing  w^ithout,  and 
keeps  his  seat,  though  \vith  misgiving  ;  the  raging 
element  will    soon    cut  off"  all  avenues  of  escape, 


DEPLORABLE.  45 

and  consume  him  as  mercilessly  as  if  he  had  been 
madman  enougli  to  believe  most  firmly  that  he  was 
in  some  gay  banqueting  hall,  and  that  the  fitful 
light  which  glared  in  at  the  windows  was  but  from 
a  hundred  glancing  festival  lamps,  and  the  din  of 
firemen  and  the  flames  but  from  the  mazy  tread  and 
music  of  the  merry  dancers.  —  See  you  this  ship 
riding  negligently  in  the  outer  circles  of  a  mighty 
whirlpool !  If  the  master  doubts  the  Charybdis, 
and  w^ill  not  examine,  but  goes  on  allowing  his  ship 
to  float  about  at  its  own  idle  will ;  the  grasping 
vortex  will  soon  fasten  him  in  inexorable  embrace, 
and,  hurrying  him  round  and  round  in  swifter  and 
swifter  circles,  will  finally  engulf  him  in  its  boiling 
center  as  mercilessly  as  if  he  had  been  insane 
enough  to  believe  himself  in  safest  waters,  and  the 
roar  of  the  whirling  currents  but  the  hoarse  joy  of 
the  kind  sea-gods  bearing  him  in  their  own  fantastic 
way  into  his  wished-for  haven.  According  to  the 
Scripture,  you  are  this  ship,  O  men  of  little  or  no 
faith,  and  yet  floating  about  at  your  careless  ease  as 
if  in  some  Golden  Horn  !  According  to  the  widely 
credited  Scripture,  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  remain 
for  a  little  in  your  present  doubting  and  inactive 
state,  and  you  will  come  to  wreck  as  surely  as  if 
you  had  sailed  for  it  with  all  sails  spread  and  with 
aiming  rudder. 

Prudence  does  not  object  to  repose  as  such  ;  but 
it  does  object  to  repose  on  the  brink  of  a  precipice  ; 
does  object  to  careless  inaction  while  it   is  yet  in 


46  A  SAD  EXCEPTION. 

doubt  whether  eternity  is  provided  for.  It  may  be 
there,  it  may  be  here  —  that  astounding  precipice 
which  has  no  bottom ;  we  may  reach  it  to-morrow^, 
we  may  reach  it  to-day  ;  who  knows,  the  fog  about 
us  is  so  thick,  whether  there  is  a  single  yard  be- 
tween us  and  it !  But  this  we  know,  that  a  plau- 
sible Bible  with  a  noble  following,  affirms  that  who- 
ever goes  plunging  from  that  brink  without  a  true 
faith  had  better  never  have  been  born.  That  fall 
shall  take  his  life  away.  Is  that  a  fate  to  be 
lightly  risked,  O  thou  lover  of  thine  ease  ?  Is  Col 
de  Viso  a  summit  to  throw  one's  self  carelessly 
about  upon  in  the  dense  fog,  O  madman  of  a 
traveler?  Look  down  that  depth  and  shudder! 
Look  down  that  depth  and  beware !  The  situation 
is  too  danfjerous  for  a  careless  and  comfortable  stu- 
pidity  or  light-headiness.  Till  you  are  safe  be  vigi- 
lant and  laborious.  When  the  crisis  is  passed,  when 
you  have  no  longer  beneath  you  thousands  of  fathoms 
of  sheer  descent  into  which  a  single  misstep  may 
plunge  you,  then  you  may  put  yourself  at  your  ease  ; 
but  now  —  I  am  surprised  at  you  !  Was  ever  such 
unaccountable  behavior  on  such  dizzy  and  dusky 
brinks !  Yes,  there  is  one  behavior  that  matches 
and  surpasses  it.  It  is  that  of  the  man  who  is  care- 
less and  drowsy  on  possible  Eternity-Brinks.  By 
diligent  effort  what  may  he  not  gain  —  by  a  day's 
inaction  what  may  he  not  lose !  Who  through 
that  thick  haze  can  see  a  day,  or  even  an  hour,  or 
even  a  minute,  in  advance  ?     Now  is  the  time  for 


DEPLORABLE.  47 

anxiety,  now  is  the  time  for  careful  stepping,  now 
is  the  time  to  send  voice  of  prayer  for  an  extri- 
cating Arm  among  and  across  tlie  eternities  of 
joy  and  sorrow,  which,  lie  is  told,  are  eagerly  com- 
peting at  his  feet  for  the  possession  of  him.  When 
his  efforts  have  proved  successful,  and  light  has 
broken  in  on  his  doubt  ;  then  let  him  praise  and 
obey  the  God  whom  he  has  discovered,  and  ride  at 
anchor ;  then  let  him  praise  and  follow  the  Saviour 
whom  he  has  reached,  and  spread  out  his  tired 
forces  in  the  repose  of  their  winter-quarters.  Now 
repose  is  safe.  Till  now  it  has  been  the  hight  of 
venturesome  insanity. 

Let  us  say  that  it  is  irrational. 

Reason  does  not  object  to  repose  —  but  it  docs 
object  to  repose  before  anything  has  been  done  ; 
does  object  to  a  careless  sluggishness  for  which  no 
good  reason  can  be  assigned.  If  the  man  were 
only  able  to  say  that  he  could  not  examine  ;  if  he 
were  only  able  to  say  that  the  Biblical  Religion  is 
not  worth  examining ;  if  he  were  only  able  to  say 
that  some  future  day  would  be  better  for  the  ex- 
amination than  the  present ;  if  he  were  only  able  to 
say  tliat  success  would  be  no  more  favored  by  care 
and  struggle  than  by  careless  inaction  —  then,  un- 
doubtedly, reascm  would  say,  Remain  at  your  ease, 
Ride  dreamily  at  your  anchor  still,  Refuse  to  break 
up  the  easy  negligence  and  comfort  of  your  winter- 
quarters.  But  wdiat  man  lacking  faith  can  justify 
his  supineness  on  any  such  ground  ?     Not  one,  I 


48  A   SAD  EXCEPTION. 

verily  believe  ;  not  one,  even  to  himself.  Com- 
pelled !  — he  knows  better.  Not  worth  the  pains  ! 
—  he  knows  better.  To-morrow  better  than  to- 
day!—  he  knows  better.  The  chances  no  better 
for  energy  than  for  indolence  !  —  he  knows  better. 
He  knows  more  in  such  matters  than  he  even  gives 
himself  credit  for.  Profoundly  in  his  heart  he 
knows  that  no  good  reason  can  possibly  be  given 
for  droning  away  what  may  be  his  probation  and 
chances  for  a  happy  immortality.  No  such  reason 
was  ever  supposed  to  exist.  What  says  our  better 
judgment  in  such  a  case  to  the  ship  that  sways  idly 
at  its  anchor  when,  it  may  be,  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  yet  to  be  sailed  for  ;  to  the  army  that 
sleeps  and  saunters  and  sings  away  the  spring  and 
summer  in  perpetual  camp  when,  it  may  be,  eternal 
life  is  yet  to  be  campaigned  for?  It  darts  the  word 
irrational  at  it  like  a  javelin.  It  disowns  all  friendly 
relationship  to  such  an  unreasonable  and  hazardous 
repose.  It  rebukes  it  in  the  name  of  that  Supreme 
Reason  of  which  it  tremblingly  conceives  —  it  re- 
bukes it  in  the  name  of  what  men  call  science  ;  in 
the  name  of  that  instinctive  science  which  men  call 
common  sense. 

It  seems  doubly  irrational  for  men  to  carelessly 
allow  themselves  in  dimness  and  uncertainty  of 
religious  views  while  they  are,  to  a  man,  paying 
great  attention  to  clear  up  other  matters  confessedly 
far  less  important.  Why,  yonder  is  a  farmer  who 
is  taking  vastly  more  pains  to  get  a  clear  notion  of 


DEPLORABLE.  49 

the  state  of  the  market  than  he  is  to  satisfy  himself 
whether  he  has  any  God.  Wliy,  there  is  a  trades- 
man who  is  putting  forth  more  real  effort  to  under- 
stand well  a  small  invoice  of  ffoods  than  he  ever 
used  to  understand  whether  Jesus  was  true  Christ. 
Why,  here  is  a  scholar  who  sets  himself  with  more 
faithfulness  and  heart  to  investigate  a  point  of 
grammar,  which  most  men  cannot  see  at  all,  than 
he  ever  gave  to  inquiring  whether  the  Bible  is  a 
Divine  Book.  Not  a  man  of  all  those  who  make 
no  effort  to  clear  up  these  great  matters  to  their 
doubting  minds  but  is  often  found  making  great 
effort  to  enlighten  his  mind  on  subjects  of  far  less 
consequence.  You  cannot  but  feel  that  this  con- 
duct is  exceedingly  unreasonable.  No  intelligent 
man  can  justify  himself  to  his  own  judgment  in 
making  such  a  distinction  as  this  between  things 
secular  and  religious. 

Let  us  say  that  it  is  unhappy. 

We  call  it  living  at  ease,  but  it  is  really  living  at 
misery.  The  doing  nothing  is  really  suffering 
much.  Intelligent  people  cannot  be  in  a  state  of 
inactive  hidecision  in  regard  to  questions  of  such 
enormous  magnitude  as  the  main  religious,  without 
falling  prey  to  a  subtle  and  omnipresent  anxiety. 
They  are  haunted  by  fears  of  what  may  lurk  behind 
that  unlifted  veil.  —  Behold  that  man  at  the  junction 
of  two  roads  !  One  is  right  and  the  other  wrong, 
but  which  is  right  he  cannot  tell.  Sometimes  he 
thinks  it  this,  sometimes  that — sometimes  he  pro- 
4 


50  A  SAD  EXCEPTION. 

ceeds  for  a  few  moments  in  one  direction,  then  he 
retraces  his  steps  and  proceeds  for  a  few  moments 
in  the  other.  What  shall  he  do  ?  His  face  is  a 
picture  of  indecision,  of  painful  indecision  —  for  is 
not  the  m'ght  coming  on,  and  are  there  not  alarm- 
ing rumors  abroad  as  to  what  that  night  contains  ? 
How  can  he  be  otherwise  than  anxious  ?  Even 
were  no  element  of  danger  supposed  to  exist  in  the 
case,  such  an  unsettled  state  of  mind  is  itself  no 
small  discomfort.  To  be  like  the  ball  beaten  to 
and  fro  between  two  battledoors,  or  like  the  vane 
which  trembles  now  to  this  point  and  now  to  that 
as  the  uncertain  wind  chances  to  blow,  is  neces- 
sarily a  wearing  uneasiness  to  natures  built  like 
ours.  But  danger  is  announced.  Great  danger  is 
proclaimed.  The  Scriptures  protest  that  faithless 
men  are  ruined  men.  The  air  is  thick  both  with 
the  siffns  of  night  and  with  rumors  that  the  night 
will  be  fatal  to  all  but  the  believing  followers  of 
Jesus.  The  man  is  conscious  of  never  having  done 
his  duty  by  the  Evidences  ;  is  conscious  of  not 
doing  it  now.  He  is  riding  at  anchor  when  he 
should  be  sailing  for  light  with  all  sails  spread, 
and  with  wheel  most  bravely  and  watchfully  han- 
dled. How  can  he  feel  quite  safe  ?  He  does 
not.  It  is  contrary  to  nature.  It  is  contrary  to 
your  experience,  m^^  hearers  —  such  of  you  as  are 
so  unfortunate  as  to  have  little  or  no  faith,  and  no 
effort  to  have  it.  Do  I  not  know  your  history  just 
as  well  as  if  you  had  risen  in  your  place  and  told  it 


DEPLORABLE.  51 

forth  to  me  ?  It  is  a  perpetual  chafing.  You  are 
in  a  subtle  ache  and  worry  from  morning  to  night. 
Beneath  your  smiles,  beneath  your  cheerful  and 
jocund  words  and  port,  lurks  an  apprehension, 
sometimes  weak  and  sometimes  strong,  as  to  what 
the  future  may  bring  the  neglectful  unbeliever  :  and 
when  you  are  specially  thoughtful  that  apprehension 
swells  into  a  great  fear  gnawing  voraciously  at  the 
seat  of  life.  No  matter  who  denies  it,  you  know 
that  all  these  unbelievers  so  drowsily  riding  at 
anchor  when  they  should  be  sailing,  sailing  with 
might  and  main  toward  the  light,  are  like  "  the 
troubled  sea  that  cannot  rest."  Have  I  not  seen 
that  sea  wrinkling  and  wrinkling,  waving  and  wav- 
ing, tossing  and  tossing,  as  ever  the  night  drew  on 
—  in  growing  sign  of  the  great  billows  which  the 
storm  is  preparing  to  lift  ? 

Let  us  say  that  it  is  criminal. 

If  it  be  true  that  such  conduct  is  unseasonable, 
unhappy,  irrational,  and  dangerous,  then  the  man 
who  allows  himself  in  it  is  a  guilty  man.  What 
is  reason  good  for,  if  not  to  try  such  questions  as 
religion  concerns  itself  with  ?  Have  we  a  right 
to  expend  all  our  inquisitiveness  on  least  things  ? 
Are  we  at  liberty  to  take  our  souls  in  our  hands, 
and  saunter  along  with  half-shut  eyes,  where,  at 
least,  are  glimmers  of  something  like  slippery  ways 
and  abysses  which  cannot  be  sounded?  Oh,  can  we 
strain  every  faculty  to  solve  the  little  riddles  which 
science  and    business  and  pleasure  offer,  and  still 


52  A   SAD  EXCEPTION. 

remain  innocent  when  we  refuse  to  put  our  thoughts 
faithfully  to  the  mightiest  problems  of  existence  ? 
It  ought  not  to  be  hard  to  convict  every  man,  with 
little  or  no  faith  and  yet  making  no  worthy  effort 
for  light,  at  the  bar  of  lii.s  conscience  of  failing 
greatly  in  his  duty  to  himself,  to  truth,  and  to  the 
society  which  his  example  at  once  solicits  and  at- 
tacks. It  is  not  hard.  He  stands  self-convicted 
before  a  single  word  of  reproof  from  without  reaches 
him.  He  rides  at  anchor  in  defiance  of  his  own 
conscience  and  of  the  sonorous  proclamations  of  his 
own  better  judgment.  While  men  bearing  the 
names  of  prophets  and  apostles  and  Son  of  God  are 
protesting —  while  a  Christian  land  is  raining  objec- 
tion from  its  whole  sky — while  libraries  of  helps 
to  inquiry,  the  accumulation  of  ages  and  the  legacy 
of  unquestioned  wise  and  good,  are  beckoning  and 
saying,  Up  and  inquire  —  while  the  very  sun  shines 
remonstrances  with  all  his  swarming  rays  as  he 
hastens  from  rising  to  setting  to  open  myriad  graves 
and  measure  out  our  scanty  days  —  from  inmost 
self  comes  up  a  voice  that  refuses  to  be  silenced,  and 
says  Amen  to  all  the  crowding  remonstrances  from 
without.  Will  he  still  wretchedly  drowse  ?  Will 
he  allovv  day  to  melt  into  day,  and  year  into  year, 
and  the  end  to  draw  nigh ;  and  still  do  nothing  ? 
Will  he  still  ride  at  anchor  —  just  so  unseasonably, 
unhappily,  irrationally,  dangerously,  and  contrary 
to  all  the  habit  and  wisdom  of  his  secular  life  ?  Ah, 
guilty  man  !     How  like  to  truth  is  the  Christian 


DEPLORABLE.  53 

philosophy  of  unbelief,  Every  one  that  doeth  evil 
hateth  the  light,  neither  cometh  to  the  liglit  lest 
his  deeds  should  be  reproved.  Shall  I  translate  ? 
Want  of  faith  is  due  to  sinninor.  Our  minds  are 
dark  because  they  are  guilty. 

I  know  of  no  condition  worse  than  that  of  the 
man  who  has  little  or  no  light  on  the  supreme 
religious  questions,  and  who  at  the  same  time  is 
makino;  no  effort  to  come  to  the  liojht.  Better  be 
without  every  outward  possession.  He  is  far  more 
an  object  for  pity  than  those  on  whom  the  tender- 
hearted are  most  apt  to  shed  their  tears  and  helps. 
If  you  have  any  tears  to  spare,  O  friends,  shed  them 
not  on  him  who  wants  the  daily  bread  and  comforta- 
ble clothing,  nor  on  him  whom  cureless  disease  has 
stretched  in  weakness  and  pain,  nor  on  him  who 
has  been  stript  of  kindred  and  friends  till  he  looks 
the  single  forlorn  tree  of  a  desert  plain.  Rather 
reserve  them  for  him  who  knows  not  whether  he 
has  a  Revelation,  or  a  Saviour,  or  a  God  —  whether 
he  has  an  immortal  soul,  a  Divine  Message  to  in- 
struct it,  a  Divine  Friend  to  redeem  it,  a  Divine 
Spirit  to  renew  it,  and  a  Divine  Heaven  of  glorious 
virtue  and  reward  to  be  had  after  his  brief  day  here 
is  set.  I  say,  reserve  your  tears  for  him.  Beneath 
the  heavens  I  know  not  so  fit  an  object.  He  is  such 
a  Sad  Exception  to  believing  Christendom  !   - 


IV. 

A  GREAT  OFFER. 


IV.     A  Great  Offer. 

1.  NATURE 57 

2.  APPLICATIONS 59 

3.  IMPLICATIONS 61 

4.  CONDITIONS 69 


A   GREAT   OFFER. 

Good  ani>  upright   is   thk  Lord;  therefore  will  He   tkach 
sinners  in  the  way. 

TDEHOLD  a  great  offer  made  by  the  Scriptures 
^^  to  all  whom  it  may  concern !  It  at  least 
amounts  to  this  —  if  a  man  will  only  comply  with 
certain  reasonable  conditions,  God,  in  virtue  of  His 
goodness,  will  surely  show  him  the  course  to  be 
taken  on  all  the  graver  matters  of  religion. 

One  desires  to  know  clearly  whether  there  is  an 
Infinite  God.  The  Scripture  comes  to  that  man  and 
says,  ''God  is  good;  and  He  has  made  provision 
to  reveal  Himself  to  you,  if  you  will  place  yourself 
in  a  certain  light  and  attitude."  Another  desires  to 
know  whether  the  Christian  Religion  is  true.  The 
Scripture  comes  to  that  man  and  says,  "  God  is 
good;  and  He  will  surely  show  you  that  Jesus 
brings  a  divine  message,  if  you  will  only  betake  your- 
self to  a  certain  point  of  view."  Still  another  desires 
to  know  whether  certain  great  doctrines  are  really 
taught  in  the  message  ;  whether,  for  example,  it 
teaches  the  desperate  wickedness  of  all  men  in  their 
natural  condition,  their  exposure  to  ruin  on  account 
of  that  wickedness,  a  complete  atonement  freely 
offered  to  all,  that  atonement  made  personal  and 


68  A   GREAT  OFFER. 

reformatory  by  repentance  and  faith  in  Jesus 
wrought  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Tlie 
Scripture  comes  to  that  man  and  says,  "  God  is 
good  ;  and  He  will  doubtless  show  you  whether  such 
great  meanings  as  these  are  fairly  written  out  in  His 
Word,  if  you  will  trouble  yourself  to  get  into  the 
state  and  circumstances  suitable  for  such  a  disclos- 
ure." Still  another  desires  to  know  how  to  apply 
the  general  maxims  of  duty  furnished  in  the  Bible 
to  the  finding  of  his  own  peculiar  duties,  especially 
of  those  great  courses  of  duty  which  return  with 
every  day  and  spread  themselves  over  a  lifetime. 
The  Scripture  comes  to  that  man  and  says,  "  God  is 
good  ;  and  surely  He  will  discover  to  you  the  sphere 
of  duty  to  which  you  properly  belong,  and  set  up 
for  you  finger-posts  of  direction  toward  all  its  lead- 
ing highways,  if  you  will  only  fulfill  certain  reason- 
able preliminaries."  And  another  still  desires  a 
knowledge  even  more  distant  and  arduous,  if  pos- 
sible, than  either  of  these :  desires  to  know  how 
to  bring  his  perverse  nature  to  do  the  duty  which 
he  has  discovered,  how  to  keep  the  grace  he  has 
attained,  how  to  master  temptations,  how  to  guard 
successfully  against  the  main  weaknesses  and  treach- 
eries of  his  evil  heart.  The  Scripture  comes  to  that 
man  also  and  says,  "  God  is  good ;  and  He  will 
surely  teach  you  how  to  do  the  main  practice  as  well 
as  how  to  believe  the  main  theory  of  religion  ;  how 
to  guide  your  bark  according  to  compass  and  chart 
and  star,  after  you  have  learned  from  them  what 


APPLICATIONS.  59 

course  is  desirable  ;  only  do  you  put  yourself  in 
communication  with  the  teaching  power  after  such 
suitable  modes  as  God  may  choose  to  appoint  you." 
In  .a  word,  whatever  questions  of  the  more  impor- 
tant class  in  religion  press  on  our  attention,  we 
are  bidden  to  see  in  the  goodness  of  God  an  assur- 
ance that  He  will  help  us  to  a  solution  of  them, 
provided  we  are  just  to  ourselves. 

If  any  of  you  are  perplexed  and  painfully,  tossed 
by  unsettled  questions  of  this  nature,  let  me  commend 
to  you  the  gospel  which  lies  enfolded  in  this  offer. 
Here  is  comfort  for  you.  Here  is  light  ready  to 
shine  in  on  your  darkness  from  afar.  Only  draw 
aside  the  heavy  curtains,  open  the  close-fitting 
shutters,  and  look  upward.  Perhaps  at  first  it 
is  only  the  silvery  starlight  which  streams  faintly 
into  your  eyes  ;  but  still  wait  and  look.  In  time, 
the  moon,  crescent  or  full,  shall  mount  your  horizon 
and  walk  in  brightness  ;  bathing  the  night  in  its 
soft,  pale  flood  ;  and  revealing  in  dusky  outline  the 
mountain,  the  river,  the  forest,  and  all  large  features 
of  the  landscape.  Still  wait  and  look ;  and  at  last 
the  day  shall  dawn,  and  the  sun  rise,  and  all  the 
objects  with  which  human  life  and  labor  are  chiefly 
concerned  stand  out  so  distinctly  in  the  golden 
beams  that  you  can  go  forth  to  your  duties  among 
them  with  assured  and  rapid  step.  So  says  the 
oifer.  Good  and  upright  is  the  Lord  ;  therefore  will 
He  teach  sinners  in  the  way. 

This  offer  implies  several  things.  Let  me  inter- 
pret them  to  you  in  the  light  of  the  whole  Bible. 


60  A    GREAT  OFFER. 

First,  it  is  very  important  that  men  understand 
their  main  path  in  religion. 

I  mean  that  the  Scriptures  teach  so.  There  is 
abundant  teaching  to  the  contrary  in  the  world  ; 
and  you  liave  only  to  open  your  ears,  to  hear  from 
many  quarters  and  in  many  sliapes  the  sentiment 
that  we  need  not  perplex  ourselves  with  religious 
matters  of  any  kind  ;  that  neither  our  own  private 
interests  nor  those  of  society  at  large,  are  any  the 
more  likely  to  suffer  from  our  living  along  in  care- 
less neglect  of  all  questions  that  may  be  started  in 
respect  to  our  religious  relations.  It  has  even  been 
claimed  that  religious  doubt  is  philosophy  and  the 
highest  dignity  of  man.  No  trace  of  such  views 
can  be  found  in  the  Scriptures.  With  them  our 
course  as  moral  and  relimous  beino;s  is  the  most 
important,  beyond  comparison,  of  all  the  courses 
we  pursue.  Everything,  according  to  them,  hinges 
on  our  success  in  mainly  finding  and  following  a 
certain  path.  Certainly  it  w^as  not  from  the  Bible 
that  men  took  the  maxim  that  it  matters  not 
what  a  man  believes  if  his  conduct  is  right.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Bible  is  that  the  conduct  cannot 
be  right  while  the  belief  is  fundamentally  wrong; 
and  that  God  insists  on  a  leading  soundness  of  re- 
ligious opinions  with  as  much  firmness  and  pen- 
alty as  He  does  on  anything.  Not  inattention 
but  inquiry,  not  ignorance  but  knowledge,  not 
doubt  but  faith,  is  demanded  under  stress  of  all 
wondrous   liabilities    both    of  sorrow   and  of  joy. 


IMPLICATIONS.  61 

We  must  believe  in  God ;  we  must  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ ;  we  must  believe  in  the  Bible  as  the 
inspired  record  of  His  religion ;  we  must  knt)w  the 
Scripture  way  of  salvation,  with  a  variety  of  doc- 
trines involved  in  it  and  essential  to  its  practical 
power  ;  we  must  know  main  points  of  duty  and 
the  art  of  self-government  so  as  to  fulfill  them,  or 
we  perish.  So  the  Scripture  teaches,  not  once  nor 
twice,  but  throughout ;  it  is  stated  or  assumed 
everywhere  ;  it  is  ingrained  into  warp  and  woof  of 
the  Record,  and  we  cannot  by  any  skill  pick  out 
the  disagreeable  pattern  without  resolving  the  whole 
texture  into  shreds. 

Their  path  in  religion  —  what  they  are  to  believe 
and  what  they  are  to  do  in  that  field  ■ —  is  something^ 
secondly^  which  men  will  never  sufficiently  learn  of 
themselves, 

I  mean  that  so  the  Scripture  teaches.  We  may 
set  ourselves  down  to  some  worldly  art  or  sci- 
ence, and  acquire  as  much  knowledge  about  it  as 
will  amply  suffice  for  the  wants  of  our  position  ; 
and  all,  it  may  be,  by  the  unassisted  action  of 
our  own  intelligent  powers.  With  skillful  human 
teachers  at  our  side,  we  are  able  to  do  the  same 
thing  with  greater  ease  and  rapidity.  By  these 
merely  human  faculties,  our  own  and  those  of  other 
men,  we  may  learn  the  geography  or  the  geology 
or  the  astronomy  to  any  extent  which  our  post  in 
life  may  require  —  at  least  we  are  not  informed  that 
any  supernatural  assistance  is  necessarily  involved 


62  A    GREAT  OFFER. 

in  such  an  achievement.  And  we  are  not  authorized 
to  say  that  there  are  not  many  things  in  reHgious 
science  and  in  the  art  of  living  righteously,  to  know 
which  only  the  common  powers  of  men  are  re- 
quired. But  there  is  this  pecuharlty  about  the 
sphere  of  religious  knowledge  —  if  we  are  to  credit 
the  Scriptures  —  that  no  man  will  ever  explore  it 
sufficiently  for  his  necessity  by  mere  force  of  such 
powers  as  belong  to  men.  He  can  and  will  know 
very  many  things  here  as  elsewhere  by  simply  ask- 
ing his  own  thoughts  and  those  of  his  fellows.  But 
he  will  never  in  this  way  come  to  know  his  path  in 
religion  sufficiently  well  to  secure  the  general  safety 
and  success  of  his  journey.  He  may  possess  a  pro- 
found understanding.  He  may  be  equipped  with 
the  finest  helps  of  culture  and  leisure.  A  written 
Revelation  may  spread  out  its  abiding  pages  side  by 
side  with  the  parables  of  Nature  for  his  unlimited 
study.  Books  of  the  wise  and  good,  living  voices 
eloquently  and  sagely  discoursing  their  own  sure 
knowledge  and  experience,  may  gather  about  him 
with  their  treasures  and  do  their  best  to  communi- 
cate the  abundant  hoards.  But  it  will  be  in  vain. 
He  cannot  be  enriched  in  this  way.  After  all  he  is 
but  a  fairly  chiseled  and  polished  statue  around 
which  its  friends  may  twine  a  few  flowers  and  hang 
a  few  fruits,  but  which  has  no  powfer  to  snuff  the 
sweetness  of  the  vase  of  precious  aromatics  which 
one  beseechingly  and  patiently  holds  under  its  mar- 
ble nostrils,  or  to  taste  the  sweetness  of  the  jew- 


IMPLICATIONS.  63 

eled  goblet  of  milk  and  honey  which  another 
presses  to  its  marble  lips.  The  stiff  stone  must 
become  flesh  and  blood.  The  classic  form  must 
have  a  soul  created  under  its  ribs  of  death.  Not 
till  this  is  done  can  it  really  appropriate  and  use  the 
luxuries  offered  it.  And  yet,  perhaps,  we  ought  not 
to  compare  any  man  with  perfectly  helpless  stone, 
though  hewn  into  the  shape  of  an  Apollo.  Rather 
let  that  strong  and  cultured  mind,  to  which  all 
choice  circumstances  are  endeavoring  to  minister 
the  various  particulars  of  fundamental  religious 
knowledge,  be  the  giant  Patagonian,  practiced  in 
the  conflicts  of  the  chase  and  battle,  around  whom 
in  his  native  wilds  gather  the  missionaries  of  civili- 
zation, with  hands  loaded  with  the  best  wares  of  the 
best  countries.  They  hold  up  to  his  acceptance 
strong  and  rich  textures,  and  tell  him  how  they  will 
protect  him  from  summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold. 
They  put  under  his  eye  the  seeds  and  implements 
of  agriculture,  and  tell  him  how  they  may  make  his 
fields  smile  with  plenty.  Here  are  epitomes  of  all 
the  useful  arts  ;  here  are  handicrafts,  sciences,  ac- 
complishments without  number ;  and  they  tell  him 
how  with  these  to  fill  his  wilderness  with  gardens 
and  palaces.  And  what  comes  of  all  these  proffers 
and  explanations  ?  He  takes  a  few  nails  to  point 
his  arrows  and*  turns  away.  He  has  no  patience, 
if  faculty,  to  master  the  strange  ideas.  He  has  no 
taste  for  new  modes  of  life.  Nature  and  habit  and 
tradition,  all  conspire  to  blind   him  to  the  nature 


64  A    GREAT  OFFER. 

and  value  of  the  blessings  pressed  upon  him,  and  to 
send  him  back  to  the  almost  unmitigated  wretched- 
ness of  his  hovel  and  liis  desert.  Just  so,  according 
to  the  Bible,  there  is  a  native  wildness  in  everv 
man,  opposing  the  richest  offers  of  rehgious  truth  ; 
and  as  long  as  he  has  only  men  like  himself  to  come 
around  him  and  recommend  to  him,  however  ear- 
nestly and  eloquently,  the  great  fundamentals  of 
sacred  doctrine,  they  are  sure  to  be  misappre- 
hended and  rejected.  He  will  receive  some  things, 
perhaps,  but  he  will  refuse  more  and  greater.  He 
will  fail  to  grasp  the  proffered  solutions  to  life's 
greatest  questions.  His  true  course  as  a  moral  and 
religious  being  will  fail  to  be  substantially  appre- 
hended. If  there  is  any  man  whose  views  on  all 
leading  questions  of  religion  are  correct,  it  is  surely 
not  his  own  depth  of  understanding  and  skill  at 
argument,  nor  the  wise  instructions  of  human 
teachers,  living  or  dead,  to  which  he  owes  the 
blessing.  As  says  the  Scripture,  The  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  for 
they  are  foolishness  to  him  ;  neither  can  he  know 
them  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned. 

But^  thirdly^  what  man  certainly  never  will  know 
hy  any  merely  human  teaching  he  can  know  by  a 
Divine, 

I  mean  that  so  the  Scripture  teaches.  The  God 
of  the  Bible  is  both  omniscient  and  almighty.  He 
can  reveal  Himself  to  the  man  who  has  no  God. 
He  can  reveal  Jesus  Christ  to  the  man  who  has  no 


IMPLICATIONS.  65 

Saviour.  He  can  so  write  His  name  on  the  Scrij)- 
tures  before  the'  infidel  that  he  can  be  infidel  no 
longer.  The  plan  of  salvation,  and  all  its  great 
depending  doctrines,  He  can  make  clear  as  noonday 
to  the  dullest  mind.  The  sphere  of  duty  belonging 
to  each  person,  the  great  courses  of  religious  prac- 
tice into  which  our  affections  and  energies  shouhl 
pour  themselves,  are  all  known  to  the  Infinite,  and 
He  can  easily  place  them  before  the  mind  in  so 
strong  a  light  that  ignorance  shall  not  be  possible. 
How  well  can  He  who  knows  all  things  and  made 
all  men  bring  truth  home  to  error- stricken  souls 
through  a  hundred  avenues  !  How  mightily  could 
He,  should  He  once  set  himself  to  do  it,  argue 
down  all  the  difficulties  of  weakness,  and  all  the 
objections  and  cavils  of  unbelief !  What  darkness 
could  abide  such  beams  as  He  could  rain  into  it  in 
whom  is  no  darkness  at  all  —  what  heresy  hold  its 
ground  against  the  light  of  His  countenance  !  Men 
born  blind  and  living  in  blindness  to  old  age ;  men 
with  eyes  swathed  in  hundred  folds  of  traditional 
prejudice,  and  immured  in  windowless  dungeons 
of  error  by  sin  and  miseducation  —  no  doubt  the 
Mighty  One  could  find  out  some  method  of  bring- 
ing the  bright  day  home  to  the  most  hapless  of 
them  all.  Man  cannot  do  it  for  himself,  man  can- 
not do  it  for  his  fellow,  but  the  God  of  the  Bible 
is  one  so  grandly  equipped  with  knowledge  and 
power  that  He  can  do  it  for  all  men  and  against  all 
hindrances. 

5 


66  A    GREAT  OFFER. 

And^  fourthly ^  it  is  equally  true  that  the  God  who 
can  thus  teach  sinners  the  way^  can  consistently  teach 
it,,  under  certain  conditions. 

I  mean  that  so  the  Scripture  teaches.  We  are 
told  that  there  are  very  many  things  which  God 
can  do  which  He  cannot  do  righteously.  But  we 
are  also  told  that  the  discovery  to  benighted  men 
of  their  main  path  in  religion  is  not  one  of  these 
things.  God  is  left  at  full  liberty  by  the  circum- 
stances of  His  government  to  teach  us  wliat  we  so 
much  need  to  know  ;  only  we  must  assume  cer- 
tain positions  suitable  for  receiving  the  blessing. 
Only  we  meet  the  condition,  and  the  way  is  open 
for  God  to  pluck  hand  out  of  bosom  in  our  be- 
half, and  put  to  flight  the  ruler  of  the  darkness 
of  this  world  —  whether  he  dwell  in  us  in  the  form 
of  atheism,  or  deism,  or  heresy,  or  ignorance  of 
leading  duties  and  of  the  mode  of  compelling  our 
deceitful  and  resisting  nature  into  a  permanent 
performance  of  them.  He  will  be  hampered  by 
no  necessity  of  general  laws.  The  nature  of  free 
moral  agents  will  not  veto  His  activity.  The  con- 
flict of  the  greater  good  with  the  less  will  not  com- 
pel Him  to  leave  us  to  our  darkness.  It  will 
harmonize  perfectly  with  all  great  interests  of 
His  government  to  turn  our  doubts  into  faith,  our 
errors  into  truth  our  byways  into  highways  that 
lead  straightly  to  the  City.  Fulfill  certain  reason- 
able conditions,  O  ye  who  are  perplexed  with  the 
great  problems  of  life  and  are  beaten  about  by  many 


IMPLICATIONS.  67 

a  wind  of  doctrine  —  and  surely  then  the  way  of 
the  Lord  is  prepared  so  that  He  can  come  to  you 
through  the  night  and  over  the  water.  O  ye  who 
find  the  Gospel  a  sealed  book,  to  whom  all  chapters 
are  parables  and  all  doctrines  mysteries  —  only 
be  just  to  yourselves,  and  God  can  consistently 
come  to  your  help  with  the  sun  in  His  right  hand. 
And  ye  who  see  not  the  evil  of  sin,  nor  the  pre- 
ciousness  of  Christ,  nor  the  danger  of  the  impeni- 
tent soul.;  ye  who  see  not  the  wisdom  of  the  Gos- 
pel, nor  the  justice  of  Providence;  ye  wdio  know 
not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of,  whether  earthly 
or  heavenly  ;  ye  who  think  yourselves  inquiring 
after  duty  and  unable  to  find  it ;  ye  whom  the 
craftiness  of  a  heart  mysteriously  wicked  is  so 
continually  circumventing  and  assaulting  into  sin, 
and  to  wliom  no  methods  of  successful  resistance 
present  themselves  save  in  most  doubtful  outline  — 
be  of  good  courage  and  do  your  part,  and  there 
will  no  longer  be  any  incompatibility  between  your 
relief  and  the  interests  of  the  Divine  Kingdom. 
Above  all,  O  ye  whose  trouble  is  greatest  of  all  — 
since  ye  are  they  who  scarcely  know  what  to  be- 
lieve, though  it  be  a  Bible  or  a  Saviour  or  even  a 
God  that  asks  for  faith  —  to  you,  most  hapless  of 
all,  I  specially  say  in  behalf  of  the  Bible  that  spares 
not  its  promises.  Be  of  good  courage,  and  do  a  cer- 
tain reasonable  part  that  belongs  to  you,  and  a 
way  shall  be  prepared  for  you  through  the  deep  ; 
even  though,   in  order  to  prepare  it,  the   Omnipo- 


68  A    GREAT  OFFER. 

tt'iit  must  smite  tlic  waters  with  His  own  purple 
mantle. 

If  men  are  naturally  ignorant  of  their  path  in 
religion  ;  if  it  is  of  incalculable  importance  to  tlieni 
to  know  it ;  if  they  certainly  never  will  know  it 
merely  through  themselves  and  human  power  ;  if 
nevertheless  God  can  teach  it  to  them,  and  do  it 
without  violating  the  proprieties  of  His  position, 
provided  they  will  supply  certain  reasonable  cir- 
cumstances under  which  the  great  instruction  may 
proceed  ;  then  it  follows  from  the  goodness  of 
God  —  I  speak  simply  as  an  interpreter  of  the 
Scriptures  —  that  when  these  circumstances  are 
supplied  He  will  come  forth  from  the  hiding-places 
of  His  bright  strength,  to  quicken  our  dull  under- 
standings, resolve  our  problems,  give  us  chart  and 
compass  for  a  wise  sailing  over  life's  main.  He  is 
more  earnest  for  us  to  knovv  the  way  than  we  can 
be.  He  loves  our  safety,  onr  peace  of  mind,  our 
usefulness,  our  abundant  entrance  into  the  everlast- 
ing kingdom  infinitely  more  than  we  can  do.  So, 
as  soon  as  we  have  cast  up  the  highway  and 
gathered  out  the  stones.  He  will  begin  to  travel 
toward  us  in  the  greatness  of  His  strength  — 
the  dark  growing  whiter  and  whiter  with  every 
dazzling  though  distant  step  of  the  King  whose 
twin  names  are  Light  and  Love  —  and  at  last,  in 
the  time  He  sees  best  for  us.  He  will  arrive,  bring- 
ing with  Him  the  day.  Then  the  cloud  will  be 
gone  from  the  main  theory  and  practice  of  religion. 


CONDITIONS.  69 

The  dusky  mantle  which  muffled  the  Evidences 
so  heavily  will  interpose  its  envious  folds  no 
longer.  The  inspiration,  the  atonement,  the  pro- 
bation, the  plan  of  salvation  —  all  the  facts  and 
doctrines  witli  which  our  leading  interests  as  moral 
beings  are  bound  up  —  will  uncover  their  faces  and 
fix  upon  us  starry  eyes.  So  I  read  the  promise. 
And  I  am  sure  that  I  read  it  correctly.  It  is  stated 
and  implied  too  generously  to  allow  of  mistake. 

But  what  ^are  the  conditions  of  the  Offer  ?  I 
come  to  utter  them.  I  utter  them  to  you  distinctly, 
emphatically,  and  joyfull}^  ;  as  being  the  full  Scrip- 
ture way  to  main  light,  whether  on  the  theory  or 
the  practice  of  religion. 

1.  We  must  sincerely  desire  the  light. 

2.  We  must  use  the  light  we  already  have. 

3.  We  must  patiently  seek  light  in  the  double 
way  of  prayer  and  rational  inquiry. 

These  are  the  Biblical  conditions  of  a  plain  path. 
I  will  not  now  cite  particular  passages  in  proof  Let 
me  rather  bring  you  the  testimony  of  a  long  famil- 
iarity with  the  Scriptures.  Let  me  appeal  to  your 
general  sense  of  their  scope  and  spirit.  Let  me 
appeal  to  all  you  careless  and  doubting  readei-s  of 
them — when  you  have  ceased  to  be  careless,  and 
when  God's  ostensible  message  to  men  has  been  as 
faithfully  examined  as  its  pretensions  merit.  Be 
assured  you  have  before  you  the  great  Bible  secret 
of  How  to  believe. 

Try  it,  and  see  whether  it  is  good  for  anything  — 


70  A   GREAT  OFFER. 

all  ye  who  in  any  degree  or  from  any  cause  are 
deficient  in  faith.  Here  is  a  decisive  opportunity 
for  settling  all  the  great  questions  that  trouble  you. 
The  Scriptures  have  committed  themselves.  See 
whether  they  will  be  as  good  as  their  word.  See 
whether  a  God,  a  Jesus,  and  a  Bible  will  bricrliten 
on  your  sight  as  you  honestly  desire,  and  patiently 
pray,  and  conscientiously  do,  and .  faithfully  exam- 
ine. I  am  a  seer.  I  take  it  upon  me  to  predict 
what  the  result  will  be.  And  I  stand  here,  with 
voice  as  steady  and  assured  as  ever  went  forth  con- 
vincingly over  assembly,  to  foretell,  not  merely  a 
result  to  your  inquiry,  not  merely  settled  convic- 
tions one  way  or  another,  but  a  result  and  con- 
victions on  the  side  of  the  Biblical  Religi(m  —  a 
result  about  as  ample  and  brilliant  as  you  may 
choose  to  have.  Make  trial.  I  declare  to  you  that 
there  never  was  a  person  who  fulfilled  those  Three 
Conditions  but  came  at  last  to  know  all  things  per- 
taining to  life  and  godliness  through  the  power  of 
Him  who  has  called  us  to  glory  and  virtue.  I  de- 
clare to  you  that  never,  as  long  as  the  world  stands, 
will  any  religiously  benighted  soul  thus  patiently 
desire  and  pray  and  labor  for  the  break  of  day, 
without  at  last  seeing  the  eyelids  of  the  morn  un- 
sealed, and  the  painfully  dusky  east  gradually  red- 
den into  the  sun. 


V. 

WILL  YOU  ACCEPT? 


V.    Will  you  Accept? 

1.  RESUME 73 

2.  WILL  YOU   ACCEPT  ? 78 

3.  PRAY   DO 79 

4.  I   WILL 85 


WILL  YOU  ACCEPT? 

TIT  HAT  IS  TRUTH  ?  We  are  told  that  Pilate  put 
*  *  this  question  to  Jesus.  It  was  the  natural  ex- 
pression of  doubt  as  to  what  could  be  considered  true 
in  religion.  "  You  speak  of  truth.  And  you  say,  To 
this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into 
the  world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  to  the  truth  ; 
every  one  that  is  of  the  truth  heareth  ray  voice. 
What  is  truth  ?  I  was  born  to  the  religious  opin- 
ions of  Pagan  Rome.  I  have  been  educated  in  the 
schools  of  the  Greeks,  with  their  many  conflicting 
religious  speculations.  I  now  govern  a  people  hav- 
ing views  on  such  subjects  differing  from  all  others. 
You  are  a  new  teacher  of  religion,  and  tell  of  the 
new  system  of  truth  which  you  came  to  unfold. 
Among  these  many  mutually  conflicting  systems 
which  is  the  true  ?  " 

This  inquiry  has  an  air  of  investigation.  It  is 
just  such  as  a  sincere  man  always  j)roposes  to  him- 
self when  he  sits  down  to  the  solution  of  some  high 
problem.  Pilate  did  well  in  making  it.  He  would 
have  done  still  better  if  he  had  coupled  with  it  the 
candid  investigation  of  which  it  w^as  the  fitting 
herald,  and  that  special  plan  of  investigation  of 
which  Jesus  could  have  told  him.  I  undertake  to 
say  that   this  would  have  solved  his  doubts.     He 


74  WILL   YOU  ACCEPT? 

would  have  come  to  see,  in  the  Hebrew  Jehovah, 
the  one  livino;  and  true  God.  He  would  have  come 
to  see,  in  the  persecuted  Jesus,  God's  messenger 
and  Son.  He  would  have  come  to  see,  in  the 
sacred  writings  of  the  Jews,  God's  own  message. 
He  would  have  come  to  see  that  diversity  of  relig- 
ions no  more  proves^  that  there  is  no  ascertainable 
true  religion  than  does  diversity  of  bodily  condition 
that  there  is  no  attainable  condition  of  health,  or 
diversity  of  character  that  there  is  no  attainable 
upright  character,  or  diversity  of  coins  that  there 
is  no  attainable  genuine  coin.  His  new  convictions 
might  have  issued  in  conduct  to  match.  And  then, 
instead  of  becoming  infamous  for  all  time  as  the 
executioner  of  Jesus,  and  dying  in  extreme  anguish 
the  death  of  a  suicide,  he  would  have  taken  his 
place  among  Christian  Constantines,  and  have  died 
in  due  course  of  nature  with  pale  face  beaming  with 
joyful  expectations  of  possessing  a  government  more 
extensive  than  ever  belonged  to  Roman  Procurator, 
and  a  throne  more  imperial  than  ever  held  Roman 
Caesar. 

We  have  great  cause  to  think  there  are  some  in 
our  Christian  congregations  who  hold  somewhat  the 
attitude  of  Pilate.  They  have  yet  to  settle  what 
truth  is.  They  do  not  allow  themselves  to  be 
called  atheists  or  infidels  ;  yet  they  are  in  doubt. 
How  else  can  we  account  for  the  fact  that  there  are 
so  many  among  us,  who,  notwithstanding  all  the 
pressure    brought  to  bear  upon  them,  neglect  the 


RESUME.  75 

Biblical  Religion  as  a  practice  ?  It  is  hard  to  see 
how  they  can  venture  to  trifle  with  and  disobey 
that  Religion  as  they  do,  if  they  have  proper  faith 
in  it.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  they  are,  per- 
haps almost  unconsciously,  halting  between  two 
opinions.  They  are  not  yet  grounded  in  a  clear 
intellectual  faith.  Have  I  such  before  me  to-day  ? 
I  protest  to  them  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  conse- 
quence that  they  do  what  Pilate  did — ask  what 
is  truth,  and  ask  it  of  Christ.  I  protest  to  them 
that  it  is  of  the  utmost  consequence  that  they 
do  what  Pilate  did  not  do  —  couple  this  inquiry 
with  that  Biblical  Plan  of  Investiojation  which  will 
surely  enable  them  to  answer  it.  I  have  stated 
what  that  Plan  is.  Is  it  understood  and  remem- 
bered?    Let  me  paraphrase  it  to  you  as  follows. 

Want  of  faith  will  not  supply  itself.  If  there  is 
a  vacuum  in  the  atmosphere  the  subtle  air  will  at 
once  set  itself  in  motion  from  all  sides  to  fill  the 
vacancy.  That  element  has  a  natural  bent  to  go 
wherever  its  presence  is  needed.  It  is  so  to  some 
extent  with  natural  light.  You  have  to  take  pains 
to  keep  out  of  a  room  the  light  of  a  bright  day. 
You  must  close  the  doors,  you  must  drop  the  cur- 
tains, you  must  bring  the  carefully  matched  shut- 
ters together.  But  faith  does  not  rush  in  upon 
vacant  minds  in  this  instinctive  and  assailing  man- 
ner. Whether  it  have  respect  to  God,  or  Christ, 
or  the  Scriptures  —  you  must  not  expect  it  to  set 
in  upon  you  by  a  sort  of  natural  gravitation  ;  as 


76  WILL   YOU  ACCEPT? 

stones  fall  to  the  ground,  and  as  rivers  run  toward 
the  sea.  Nor  will  God,  in  an  independent  way 
and  in  the  exercise  of  an  almightiness  that  cares 
not  for  your  cooperation,  put  the  blessing  to  which 
you  are  indifferent  within  you ;  ajs  men  freight  the 
deep  holds  of  ships  and  vaults  of  banks  with  pre- 
cious wares  and  metals  —  the  one  party  choosing 
and  struggling  to  make  the  deposit,  and  the  other 
passively  receiving  it.  This  is  not  God's  way. 
Great  as  is  the  blessing,  vastly  as  He  desires  to 
communicate  it  at  once  and  universally,  He  cannot 
be  counted  on  to  do  it  after  this  mode.  He  re- 
quires of  you  a  positive  effort  at  seeking  and  obtain- 
ing. You  must  set  yourselves  to  work,  in  certain 
specified  ways,  to  get  light.  If  a  man  wants  the 
treasures  of  the  mine,  let  him  explore  and  excavate 
and  wash  and  refine ;  if  he  wants  the  harvests  of 
the  soil,  let  him  plough  and  plant  and  till  and  reap ; 
if  he  wants  the  valuable  things  of  the  sea,  let  him 
prepare  his  boats  and  his  nets,  and  go  watchfully 
tossing  and  dragging  along  the  wave.  Once  in  a 
great  while  God  will  send  ravens  to  feed  an  Elijah ; 
but  were  men  to  wait  for  that  method  of  supply  the 
great  majority  of  them  would  starve.  So  will  the 
men  who  wait  to  receive  faith  aside  from  their  own 
exertions.  God  will  keep  to  the  analogy  of  Nature. 
He  will  keep  to  the  declarations  of  His  Word. 
"  My  son,  if  thou  apply  thy  heart  to  understanding, 
yea,  if  thou  seekest  her  as  silver,  and  searchest  for 
her  as  for  hid  treasures,  then  shalt  thou  understand 


R^SUM^.  77 

the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  find  the  knowledge  of 
God."  "  Then  shall  ye  find  me  when  ye  shall 
seek  me  with  all  your  heart."  All  defective 
notions  of  the  Supreme  Being,  all  want  or  weak- 
ness of  faith  toward  any  part  of  the  Biblical  Relig- 
ion, must  look  for  correction  in  this  way.  It  is  the 
traveled  road.  It  is  the  one  used  from  the  begin- 
ning. It  is  the  one  that  will  be  used  to  the  ending. 
All  along  and  for  all,  it  is  the  appointment  of  God 
that  men  *'  seek  after  Him  if  haply  they  may  find 
Him  :  "  by  nourishing  a  sincere  wish  to  know  the 
truth ;  by  prayer  that  God  will  reveal  Himself  and 
His  —  crying  after  knowledge,  and  lifting  up  the 
voice  for  understanding — by  carefully  following 
conscience,  so  that  the  faithful  steward  of  five  tal- 
ents may  have  ten,  and  the  doer  of  the  will  know 
of  the  doctrine  ;  by  wakefully  studying,  as  men  do 
other  important  subjects  on  which  they  wish  to  be 
informed.  Is  a  man  sensibly  or  doubtfully  without 
faith  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  ?  Let  him 
not  wait  for  what  will  turn  up,  but  let  him  put  on  the 
harness  of  strenuous  endeavor.  Worse  still,  is  a  man 
without  faith  in  Christianity  ?  Let  him  not  wait  for 
the  clouds  to  clear  away  of  themselves,  but  let  him 
besom  them  away  with  sincerity  and  prayer  and 
thought  and  good-living,  well  wrought  at.  And 
worst  of  all,  is  a  man  without  even  an  intellect- 
ual faith  in  God  ?  Alas,  alas,  and  thrice  alas, 
for  this  great  misfortune  and  sin  !  But  let  him  not 
expect  to  emerge  from  this  dreary  night  by  lying 


78  WILL   YOU  ACCEPT? 

indolently  on  the  bosom  of  Providence  and  natural 
law — as  men  sleep  througli  tlie  dark  hours  into 
day  —  but  let  him  inquire  after  God  ;  in  the  span- 
gled heavens,  along  the  verdant  and  peopled  earth, 
in  the  depths  of  his  own  wondrous  soul  and  still 
more  wondrous  Bible ;  praying,  observing,  reflect- 
ing, doing,  with  no  stint  of  pains.  For  this  is  the 
one  Scripture  Way,  by  which  it  offers  to  stand  or 
fall. 

My  hearers,  wlio  of  you  is  qualified  to  say  that 
this  Way  is  not  reasonable?  Is  it  plain  that  God 
would  not  be  entitled  to  choose  His  own  way  of 
revealing  Himself  and  His;  especially  if  He  only 
proposes  to  hold  men  responsible  according  to  the 
liglit  they  do  or  may  possess,  and  especially  if  He 
guarantees  that  His  way  shall  prove  triumphantly 
successful  ?  You  have  heard  the  strong  promises  — 
He  that  seeks  shall  find  ;  To  him  that  knocketh  it 
shall  be  opened.  Who  does  not  know  that  these 
are  but  samples  of  the  clear-voiced  and  courageous 
engagements  that  sound  out  from  both  Dispensa- 
tions and  from  all  parts  of  the  Bible  ?  Do  as  the 
Bible  says,  and  then  —  if  there  is  any  faith  to  be 
put  in  grave  and  earnest  assurances — God  and  His 
Son  and  His  message  shall  come  as  near  to  you  as 
any  miracle  could  bring  them.  I  confess  to  think- 
ing this  offer  most  reasonable  and  even  liberal.  I 
confess  to  feeling  it  a  great  favor  that  the  Bible 
does  so  courageously  commit  itself:  enabling  me  to 
tell  you  that  on  this  its  chosen  line  of  investigation 


PRAY  DO.  79 

success  is  altogether  certain,  as  it  is  not  in  any- 
worldly  inquiry  to  which  man  ever  put  thought.  I 
confess  to  feeling  very  joyful  for  that  audacious 
offer  by  which  the  Biblical  Religion  puts  itself  in 
your  power :  enabling  me  to  tell  you  of  victory 
mortgaged  to  you  from  the  outset  of  your  inquiries  ; 
of  the  prize  you  desire  so  securely  anchored  for  you 
at  the  end  of  the  course  appointed  for  your  sailing 
that  no  stormy  violence  can  tear  it  away. 

Bethink  yourselves  that  it  is  no  small  thing  that 
there  is  a  moral  discipline  in  the  use  of  this  way  of 
getting  light !  Your  success  is  conditioned  on  and 
proportioned  to  your  honesty  of  heart,  your  love  of 
the  truth,  your  conscientious  living,  your  faithful- 
ness and  patience  of  seeking  labor.  You  are  being 
fitted  to  make  a  good  use  of  the  light  by  the  very 
process  you  take  to  get  it.  You  will  value  it  more 
highly  for  the  pains  laid  out  upon  it.  You  will, 
with  your  disciplined  watchfulness  and  muscle, 
grasp  it  all  the  more  firmly  and  hold  it  against 
attack  all  the  more  triumphantly.  And  will  it 
not  nourish  you  as  it  could  not  do  without  the 
healthy  labor  which  precedes  its  acquisition,  and 
which  tones  up  the  system  to  a  preparation  for  the 
marrow  and  fatness  of  this  imperial  diet?  You 
must  work  for  your  daily  bread.  This  work  gives 
you  an  appetite ;  it  puts  the  body  into  a  condition 
to  be  nourished  by  the  food  it  gathers  ;  by  it  the 
whole  system  is  strung  to  relish,  retain,  and  assimi- 
late the  viands  which   it  needs  and  with  which  it 


80  WILL   YOU  ACCEPT? 

cannot  dispense.  Who  shall  say  that  the  Bible 
plan  of  feeding  the  soul  of  man  with  religious 
knowledo^e  does  not  gather  about  it  similar  advan- 
tages  ?  For  one  I  believe  in  the  supreme  reason- 
ableness and  noble  liberality  of  this  plan.  Better 
than  to  be  mere  vessels  —  passive  recipients  of  ideas 
and  favors  thrust  into  us  by  some  miracle  and  al- 
mighty force  !  But  why  does  not  God  so  lighten 
on  my  astonished  vision,  or  at  least  so  record  Him- 
self by  sudden  invisible  influences  on  the  tablets  of 
ray  understanding  and  heart,  that  I  shall  at  once 
know  Him  whom  to  know  is  life  eternal  ?  Who 
knows  this  to  be  consistently  possible  ?  At  all 
events  you  are  called  on  to  try  what  may  prove 
a  more  excellent  way  —  a  way  in  which  you  shall 
surely  reach  your  object,  and  reach  it  with  a  pre- 
cious preparation  for  making  the  most  of  it. 

Hear  a  Scripture  narrative.  Israel  had  fallen 
asleep.  They  had  ceased  to  take  pains  to  retain  and 
improve  their  acquaintance  with  God.  They  for- 
sook His  synagogues,  they  read  not  His  Word,  they 
restrained  prayer  before  Him,  they  made  no  ac- 
count of  His  commandments.  The  consequence  was 
that  the  idea  of  God  faded  from  tlieir  minds.  They 
knew  little  of  Him  and  cared  loss.  And  when  their 
attention  was  summoned  to  this  state  of  facts,  they 
were  indisposed  to  improve  that  state  in  God's  way. 
For  aught  I  know  they  would  have  been  willing  to 
see  some  wonderful  fire-works  of  Divine  manifesta- 
tion, could  such  have  been  brought  to  their  door 


PRAY  DO.  81 

and  paraded  before  them.  For  aught  I  know  they 
woald  have  made  no  objection  to  God's  putting 
faith  and  reverence  and  piety  into  tliem,  provided 
it  could  have  been  done  without  any  trouble  to 
themselves.  But  they  were  not  willing  to  seek 
and  inquire  after  the  God  of  their  fathers.  They 
were  not  willing  to  pray  after  Him,  and  look  after 
Him  through  His  wonderful  works,  and  study  Him 
out  in  the  bights  and  depths  of  the  inspired  Word, 
and  work  out  a  powerful  conception  of  Him  by 
conscientious  living.  They  would  not  do  so  toil- 
some a  thing,  even  to  reach  so  magnificent  a  thing 
as  the  knowledge  of  God.  For  this  God  was  in- 
censed. For  this  He  sent  His  judgments  upon 
them.     Witness  many  an  Old  Testament  writer  ! 

What  does  this  mean  ?  It  means  that  if  men 
decline  His  plan  for  giving  religious  knowledge, 
they  must  expect  that  God  will  indignantly  refuse 
that  knowledge  to  them.  A  sad  refusal!  Yet  I 
cannot  see  that  it  would  be  unreasonable.  So  let 
the  warning  be  taken.  It  shakes  menacing  finger 
at  these  distant  times  where  men  are  hunting  the 
world,  and  the  worlds,  through  for  all  things  rich 
and  strange  and  fair  —  the  lands  of  eternal  ice,  the 
glowing  equinoxes,  the  profundities  of  the  seas  and 
the  profundities  of  the  skies  —  and  do  it  with  the 
zeal  of  enthusiasts.  Why  not  explore  for  God  and 
a  Saviour  as  well  ?  Is  there  a  gireater  treasure  ? 
Is  there  a  nobler  and  more  rewarding  acquisition  ? 
Shall  men  travel  the  great  world  around  seeking 


82  WILL   YOU  ACCEPT? 

for  gain,  and  not  go  a  little  way,  or  a  great  way, 
seeking  for  God?  He  that  postpones  his  God  to 
all  things  else  should  hear  the  Scripture  toll  in  his 
ear  like  a  bell :  *'  I  will  also  stretch  out  my  hand  on 
Judah,  and  on  them  that  have  turned  back  from 
the  Lord,  and  those  that  have  not  sought  the  Lord 
nor  inquired  for  Him."  Toll  on,  O  tocsin  Zepha- 
niah,  now  for  the  Gentile  as  anciently  for  the  Jew  ! 
Perhaps  these  gold-hunters,  these  pleasure-hunters, 
these  reputation-hunters  will  take  note  of  the  retri- 
butions that  warn  in  that  doleful  music.  He  that 
hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear  ! 

Will  you  not  accept  the  Biblical  Offer  and  Method 
of  investigation  —  ye  men  of  less  faith  than  you 
could  desire,  of  weak  faith,  of  no  faith  at  all !  Will 
you  not  test  this  Scripture  way  to  faith  to  the  ut- 
most, and  do  it  at  once  ?  You  cannot  reasonably 
complain  of  darkness  if  you  refuse.  Here  is  a 
method  offered  you,  having  great  aspects  of  reason- 
ableness ;  you  can  try  it  without  risk  ;  you  incur 
great  risk  if  you  do  not  try  it ;  there  are  many  un- 
impeachable witnesses  to  assure  you  that  they  have 
tried  it  successfully ;  it  is  really  this  method  or 
none.  Will  you  not  then  promptly  and  earnestly 
make  trial  ?  Consider  what  a  sad  thing  it  is  to  be 
without  settled  religious  convictions ;  especially  to 
be  riding  at  anchor  with  all  the  Great  Religious 
Questions  unanswered.  These  are  the  questions  of 
the  hour  to  you.  How  unreasonable,  dangerous,  un- 
comfortable, irrational,  and  guilty  to  go   into  win- 


PRAY  DO.  83 

ter-quarters  with  these  all  unconquered  and  even 
unattempted  !  Make  one  good,  honest,  sufficient 
effort  to  get  out  of  your  darkness.  Try  the  offered 
way  out  —  a  way  which  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
must  be  decisive.  You  will  either  settle  that  the 
Biblical  Religion  is  true,  or  you  will  settle  that  it  is 
untrue.  And  probably  very  soon.  But  if  it  were 
necessary  to  exhaust  years  in  the  investigation  —  if 
it  were  necessary  to  toil  at  it  till  the  eye  is  blear 
and  the  cheek  cadaverous  —  if  it  were  necessary  to 
grapple  your  intellects  on  the  arduous  theme  till 
they  bow  and  tremble  almost  to  dislocation  under 
the  mighty  strain,  still  it  would  b^  time  and  toil 
wisely  laid  out. 

You  profess  to  want  to  know  the  truth.  Then 
take  this  safe,  reasonable,  and  long-tested  Scrip- 
tural Method.  By  means  of  this  theological  calculus 
give  the  theology  a  suitable  examination.  This  is 
the  least  that  can  be  asked  of  you.  And  you  know 
profoundly  that  it  is  a  most  reasonable  asking.  I 
ask  it  not  for  the  sake  of  the  great  Biblical  Religion 
that  has  weathered  so  many  storms  and  centuries. 
She  needs  it  not.  She  will  flourish  strong  and  fair 
and  immortal  whatever  you  may  do.  I  ask  for  her 
a  candid  hearing,  after  her  own  way,  for  your 
sakes.  Your  highest  interests  are  involved.  Do 
not  let  indolence  or  business  of  this  vanishing  world 
stand  in  the  way  of  this  First  Thing  being  done. 
Business  —  it  would  seem  as  if  men  thought  ther6 
were  infinite  apologies  for  all  manner  of  neglects  in 


84  WILL    YOU  ACCEPT? 

the  mere  suggestion  of  that  word !  Let  me  say  in 
y<^ur  ear  what  you  already  know  —  there  is  but  one 
business.  It  is  that  of  getting  light  on  the  Great 
Religious  Questions,  and  acting  accordingly.  Like 
rational  beings,  put  everything  second  to  that, 
without  demur.  If  you  must  reject  the  Religion, 
let  it  be  on  tlie  basis  of  a  manly  examination.  This 
Religion  may  be  true.  If  true,  it  is  of  immense 
importance  that  you  positively  believe  it.  All 
doubt  can  be  dispelled  by  a  certain  investigation. 
You  have  no  riglit  to  expect  tliat  it  will  be  dispelled 
in  any  other  way.  To  neglect  it  under  such  cir- 
cumstances is  highly  criminal.  To  neglect  it  is 
contrary  to  all  the  prudential  maxims  which  are 
wont  to  govern  you  in  all  important  secular  affairs. 
If  the  loss  of  a  thousand  dollars  were  possibly  in- 
volved in  your  failing  to  clear  up  some  imperfectly 
understood  matter  of  business  of  no  great  difficulty, 
with  what  promptness  would  you  set  yourselves  to 
the  labor  of  elucidation !  If  the  loss  of  life  or 
health  were  very  possibly  involved  in  your  failing 
to  clear  up  some  obscure  point  in  physiology  of  no 
great  difficulty,  with  what  energetic  promptness 
would  you  set  yourselves  to  the  task  of  dissipating 
that  obscurity  !  But  the  loss  of  an  estate  greater 
than  you  ever  imagined,  the  loss  of  a  health  and 
life  more  precious  than  ever  asked  help  at  the  gates 
of  medical  science,  is  very  possibly,  to  say  the  least, 
involved  in  your  neglecting  to  give  the  Evidences 
of  Religion  that  suitable   examination   to  which   I 


I  WILL.  85 

earnestly  invite  you.  Why  not  be  as  judicious  for 
the  soul  as  you  are  for  the  body  ?  Why  not  be  as 
prudent  for  eternity  as  you  are  for  time  ?  Why 
not  do  as  Pilate  did  —  ask  what  is  truth,  and  ask  it 
of  Christ  ?  Why  not  do  what  Pilate  unfortunately 
did  not  do  —  take  to  yourselves  a  sincere  wish  to 
know  the  truth,  break  oiF  obscuring  and  misleading 
sin  as  far  as  known,  ask  for  light  at  the  hands  of 
the  possible  Great  Supernatural,  and  seek  that  light 
also  in  the  use  of  the  natural  means  of  light  which 
abound  on  every  liand  ? 

Methinks  I  hear  you  say  —  "I  will  accept  the 
Scripture  Offer.  I  will  try  this  boldly  promising 
Bible  Way  to  faith." 


VI. 

FIRST  CONDITION - 

A  SINCERE   WISH    FOR   LIGHT. 


VI.    First  Condition  —  A  Sincere  Wish  for 
Light. 

i.  logical  value 89 

2.  DOUBTFUL   EXISTENCE 92 

3.  TESTS 94 

4.  WELL? 105 


FIRST  CONDITION  — A  SINCERE  WISH  FOR 
LIGHT. 

X^[OU  are  wanting  in  faith.  You  have  concluded 
-■-  to  try  the  reasonable  Bible  Way  of  meeting 
that  want.  Then  ask,  Do  I  meet  the  first  condi- 
tion of  that  Way  —  hgmj  a  sincere  desire  to  know 
the  truth? 

According  to  the  Scriptures,  our  business  with 
religion  as  intellectual  beings  includes  the  following 
particulars.  First,  we  must  perceive  that  there  is  a 
God.  Next,  we  must  perceive  that  the  Christian 
Scriptures  are  His  message  to  men.  Then,  we  must 
grasp  the  true  meaning  of  this  Divine  Book  —  its 
various  statements  of  facts,  doctrines,  and  duties. 
And  lastly,  all  these  particulars  of  knowledge 
should  be  matters  of  clear,  distinct,  and  vivid  con- 
ception ;  lying  in  the  mind,  as  nearly  as  possible,  as 
the  facts  themselves  lie  in  nature — with  the  same 
hues,  proportions,  and  bearings. 

Now,  from  first  to  last  in  this  intellectual  dealing 
with  religion  —  from  the  point  occupied  by  the 
atheist,  to  that  occupied  by  the  Christian  who  is 
conscious  that  with  all  his  faith  and  knowledge 
there  is  a  certain  want  of  vividness  and  life-likeness 
in  his  views  of  religious  facts  —  I  say,  from  first  to 
last  in  this  intellectual  process,  there  is  one  thing 


90  A  SINCERE   WISH  FOR  LIGHT. 

more  important  to  success  than  any  and  all  things 
else.  This  is  a  simple  desire  to  know  the 
TRUTH.  It  is  an  excellent  thing  to  have  a  mind 
naturally  sharp,  comprehensive,  and  logical  —  able 
to  make  nice  distinctions,  to  take  in  at  a  glance  a 
wide  variety  of  facts,  to  march  swiftly  and  in  an 
orderly  way  along  the  highways  of  thought.  It  is 
an  excellent  thing  to  have  the  mind  well  trained  in 
the  discipline  and  culture  of  the  schools,  and  fur- 
nished with  the  treasures  of  learning  and  science. 
It  is  an  excellent  thing  to  have  leisure  for  study, 
copious  libraries,  and  wise  living  companions  and 
counselors.  Still,  these  things,  the  best  of  them 
and  all  of  them,  are  by  no  means  sure  to  bring  our 
minds  to  the  more  important  religious  truths.  With 
great  faculties,  great  education,  and  great  circum- 
stantial facilities  —  nay,  with  the  very  greatest  — 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  come  to  mistake  the  Scrip- 
tures on  main  points,  to  disbelieve  them,  and  even 
to  disbelieve  a  God.  But,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, with  a  sincere  desire  to  know  the  truth,  such 
a  result  cannot  happen.  All  those  humble,  ilhter- 
ate,  labor-pressed  men,  of  whom  the  world  is  full, 
need  the  great  truths  of  religion  as  much  as  others ; 
and  so  we  are  given  to  understand  by  the  whole 
spirit  of  Scripture  that,  as  soon  as  we  are  honestly 
disposed  to  see  things  as  they  are,  our  minds  will 
begin  to  gravitate  and  move  toward  the  truth.  At 
last  they  will  reach  it.  God  will  come  to  the  help 
of  our  honesty.     The  hidden   mechanism    of  our 


LOGICAL    VALUE.  01 

natures  will  all  unconsciously  work  us  along  toward 
the  light,  to  which  they  have  acquired  a  mysterious 
affinity.  Certain  flowers  point  always  their  painted 
petals  at  the  sun,  and  move  with  him  in  his  daily 
arc  from  east  to  west —  they  know  not  how,  they 
make  no  conscious  effort ;  but  there  is  a  certain 
something,  deep  within  the  life  of  the  plant,  that 
draws  it  with  the  force  of  a  natural  law  toward  the 
pleasant  light  and  warmth  by  which  it  must  live 
and  grow.  So  instinctively  do  our  minds  bend 
toward  the  great  facts  of  religion,  when  once  they 
have  become  possessed  of  a  truth-desiring  spirit. 
At  the  very  least,  we  do  assuredly  gather  from  the 
whole  tenor  of  the  Bible,  that,  between  Nature  and 
the  Supernatural,  it  is  provided  that  all  who  want  to 
know  the  truth  on  leading  religious  matters  shall 
in  some  way  come  into  possession  of  it —  not  at  once, 
perhaps  ;  not  without  pains  and  perseverance,  per- 
haps ;  but  surely  at  some  time  and  after  some  way, 
ministered  primarily  by  a  sincere  regard  to  the 
truth.  The  unrealizing  Christian  shall  have  his 
truth  seem  life-like  to  him  ;  the  heretic  shall  lay 
hold  on  orthodoxy  ;  the  unbeliever  shall  gain  faith  ; 
the  atheist  shall  find  a  God.  The  best  ground  for 
cheerful  expectation  has  that  man  who,  amid  pres- 
ent obscurity  on  religious  points  of  great  impor- 
tance, can  yet  see  that  his  heart  has  sincere  aspira- 
tions after  light,  and  would  honestly  welcome  its 
coming. 

But  at  this  point  a  difficulty  arises.     It  is  not 


92  A  SINCERE   WISH  FOR  LIGHT. 

always  an  easy  matter  to  see  whether  we  have  a 
sincere  wisli  to  know  the  truth.  The  heart  is  des- 
perately deceitful.  Many  a  man  has  really  hated 
the  truth  when  he  thought  he  loved  it ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  not  a  few  have  loved  it  very  consider- 
ably when  they  thought  they  did  not  love  it  at  all. 
The  best  heart  that  ever  beat  in  bosom  often  prac- 
tices strange  deceptions  on  its  owner.  Willing 
to  be  told  his  faults?  Oh,  certainly  he  is,  and  will 
even  be  glad  and  thankful  to  be  told.  But, 
when  the  telling  is  done,  he  is  mortified  to  find  he 
has  misunderstood  himself.  He  really  did  not  want 
to  know  the  truth.  Willinor  to  allow  full  weight  to 
the  opposing  argument  —  desirous  to  be  convinced 
by  it  if  sound  ?  Oh,  to  be  sure  he  is :  let  him 
not  be  suspected  of  so  much  unfairness  of  mind. 
But  the  friend  who  stands  by  and  watches  the 
process  of  the  disputation  knows  better.  The 
good  man  has  fallen  into  one  of  his  bad  states, 
and  is  really  unwilling  to  see  truth  on  the  side 
of  his  opponent.  Almost  every  turn  in  the  argu- 
ment shows  it.  And  }  et  he  maintains,  and  really 
thinks,  that  he  sincerely  wishes  to  know  things  as 
they  are.  Hence  you  see  it  is  often  no  easy  mat- 
ter to  decide  what  is  our  real  feeling  toward  the 
truth.  You  can  tell  at  once  and  beyond  dispute 
whether  you  have  a  rose  in  your  bosom,  or  a  gold 
eagle  in  your  purse,  or  a  harp  in  your  house.  You 
look  and  are  convinced.  You  grasp  the  instrument 
and  strike  its  strings  and  hold  it  up  to  your  neigh' 


DOUBTFUL  EXISTENCE.  93 

bor,  and  he  Is  convinced.  But  as  to  the  existence 
of  a  small,  weakly  affection  away  down  at  the  bot- 
tom of  a  heart  deceitful  above  all  things,  here  you 
have  a  problem  that  will  not  get  safely  resolved 
by  a  glance.  If  a  man  desires  the  truth  to  a  pas- 
sion, if  the  feeling  has  become  fairly  epic  and  heroic 
in  its  measure,  then  of  course  there  will  be  no 
difficulty.  But  this  is  not  often  the  case.  The  soil 
is  seldom  so  fat  with  gold  that  one  simple  delve  of 
the  owner's  spade  shows  him  its  riches  :  he  has  to 
take  the  opinion  of  the  geologist,  and  send  off  to 
the  laboratory  specimens  which  after  all  may  prove 
to  be  without  a  single  atom  of  the  yellow  metal. 
In  most  bosoms  where  it  exists,  this  desire  for  the 
truth  exists  in  such  a  mixed  state  and  scanty  meas- 
ure that  close  inquiry  must  be  made  and  searching 
tests  applied  before  the  reality  of  the  treasure  can  be 
considered  established.  I  propose  to  mention  some 
of  the  tests  which  must  be  resorted  to  in  such  cases. 
At  the  outset  let  us  note  carefully  the  precise 
matter  to  be  tested.  It  is  not  the  existence  of  an 
honest  desire  on  your  part  to  know  the  truth  at  some 
time  between  this  and  your  last  moment  in  the  world. 
All  of  you,  probably,  can  settle  that  point  very 
promptly  without  any  tests.  But  the  true  point  is, 
Do  you  honestly  desire  to  have  the  truth  now —  on 
and  from  this  very  instant  to  see  the  facts  of  these 
great  religious  questions  in  their  true  colors  ? 
Whatever  the  obscure  and  perplexing  topics  of  your 
religit)us  thought  may  be,  have   you  a  wish  for  a 


94  A  SINCERE    WISH  FOR  LIGHT. 

present  clearing  up  of  the  exact  facts  in  the  case, 
however  much  it  may  disappoint  your  partiahties 
and  convenience  ?  —  Further,  tlie  question  to  be  an- 
swered does  not  relate  to  the  existence  of  an  occa- 
sional honest  wish  for  the  truth,  as  an  immediate 
possession  even  ;  it  points  at  what  is  habitual,  and 
a  part  of  the  standing  furniture  of  the  heart.  Who 
among  you  does  not  have  his  moments  when  he  sin- 
cerely would  like  to  have  all  the  dark  matters  in  his 
theology  opened  to  him,  just  as  they  are,  and  at  once  ! 
But  it  is  not  such  a  desire  I  have  been  speaking 
of  as  sure  to  bring  in  sooner  or  later  a  clear  solu- 
tion of  all  the  fundamental  questions  of  religion. 
It  is  one  of  which  the  soul  is  the  home  —  not  the 
inn  where  it  passes  the  night  and  is  up  and  away 
with  the  first  blush  of  dawn  —  as  well  as  one  whose 
burden  is  to-day  and  not  to-morrow  ;  to-morrow, 
that  is  always  coming  and  never  arriving. 

Now,  what  tests  may  you  have  of  your  possess- 
ing this  important  state  of  mind  ?  I  answer. 

I.  If  you  have  ity  you  are  not  in  the  habit  of  re- 
quiring demonstration  as  the  condition  of  assent  to 
any  religious  doctrine. 

Perliaps  you  think  there  may  be  persons  for  whom 
this  would  be  no  fair  test.  Their  attention  has  not 
been  properly  called  to  the  nature  of  moral  argu- 
ment. They  have  not  reflected  on  the  degree  and 
kind  of  evidence  the}^  are  obliged  to  act  on  and  are 
accustomed  to  act  on  uncomplainingly,  in  all  secular 
matters,  even  those  of  the  highest  importance.  They 


TESTS.  95 

have  not  been  awake  to  the  fact  that  it  is  as  absurd 
to  ask  for  mathematics  in  theology  as  it  would  be  to 
ask  that  matter  and  quantity  should  change  their 
natures.  There  may  be  something  in  this,  though 
I  think  not.  But  this  I  may  unhesitatingly  say, 
that  if,  after  their  attention  has  been  distinctly  called 
to  the  nature  of  moral  evidence,  these  persons  per- 
sist in  demanding  that  such  points  as  the  being  of 
a  God,  the  Divine  mission  of  Jesus,  and  the  truth 
of  the  Scriptures,  shall  be  proved  as  men  prove 
that  the  three  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two 
right  angles,  or  that  two  and  three  are  five,  it  is 
very  certain  they  have  no  real  desire  to  know  the 
truth,  at  least  at  present.  Men  who  are  not  willing 
to  know  the  truth  probably,  at  least  until  something 
better  can  be  reached,  are  not  willing  to  know  it  at 
all.  Men  who,  with  their  eyes  open,  mark  off  a 
given  field  of  moral  questions  and  arbitrarily  declare 
that  within  it  they  will  accept  no  evidence  save  the 
demonstrative,  while  on  other  fields  of  the  same 
nature  they  are  accepting  probabilities  a  hundred 
times  a  day,  and  believing,  and  even  knowing  as  it 
seems  to  them,  on  the  basis  of  these  probabilities  — 
such  men,  I  say,  cannot  flatter  themselves  that  they 
really  want  to  know  the  truth  which  they  test  by 
such  a  singular  and  impossible  standard.  Is  not 
this  fair  reasoning  ?  Notice  how  men  treat  evi- 
dence in  matters  other  than  religious.  In  these 
matters  what  one  wants  to  recognize  as  truth  he  sel- 
dom finds  any  difficulty  in  taking  probable  evidence 


96  A  SINCERE  WISH  FOR  LIGHT. 

for,  as  incontestably  reasonable.  He  does  it  in- 
stinctively and  unhesitatingly.  But  the  moment  he 
falls  in  with  a  statement  he  is  reluctant  to  accept, 
then  our  logician  becomes  more  difficult.  The  sort 
of  evidence  that  was  good  enough  before  suddenly  be- 
comes unsatisfac.tory.  He  must  have  something 
better  to  convince  him.  He  raises  his  standard. 
And,  if  his  aversion  to  the  point  to  be  proved  is 
considerable,  you  may  see  him  push  that  standard 
up  so  high  among  the  clouds  that  nothing  but 
winged  geometry  can  reach  it.  This  is  well  under- 
stood. Every  one  knows  why  it  is  that  his  neigh- 
bors sometimes  demand  in  worldly  affairs  such  enor- 
mous and  impossible  evidence.  He  knows  that  the 
reason  lies  in  their  unwillingness  to  find  the  truth 
lying  in  -certain  directions.  And  this  is  really  why 
men  are  so  unreasonably  exacting  of  evidence  on 
questions  of  religion.  They  will  have  demonstra- 
tion or  nothing.  And  yet  perhaps  they  think  they 
would  be  glad  to  know  the  truth,  whatever  it  may 
be.  They  are  mistaken.  Their  wishes,  instead  of 
being  for  knowledge,  are  against  it,  at  least  as  a 
present  possession.  They  may  desire  it  for  to-mor- 
row but  not  for  to-day. 

2.  If  you  have  an  honest  desire  to  know  the  truths 
you  are  willing  to  pray  for  the  knowledge  to  Almighty 
God  with  some  degree  of  care  and  perseverance.  o 

Here  is  another  test  equally  applicable  to  all 
minds  perplexed  on  religious  subjects,  including  such 
as  hesitate  on  the  being  of  a  God. 


TESTS.  97 

Take  the  strongest  case  —  that  of  the  man  who 
doubts  whether  there  is  a  God  to  pray  to.  This 
man  who  fails  to  see  that  a  God  is,  also  fails  lo  see 
that  He  is  not.  He  cannot  deny  that  Almighty 
God  is  possible.  A  reverent,  sincere  prayer  to  this 
possible  Being,  simply  as  a  grand  possibility,  cer- 
tainly will  do  no  harm  and  may  be  useful.  For,  if 
He  exists,  this  Sun  can  very  easily  do  more  to  throw 
light  on  our  darkness  than  a  whole  firmament  of 
twinkhng  philosophers  and  philosophies.  And  how 
much  trouble  is  it  to  say,  even  several  times  a  day, 
"  O  God,  the  possible  God,  help  me  to  light ! "  A 
few  seconds  of  time,  a  few  breaths  of  voice  or 
thought,  absolutely  no  labor  nor  sacrifice  —  who  that 
has  any  real  desire  at  all  to  find  his  way  to  clear 
views  in  religion  but  is  willing  to  try  this  easy  plan 
of  securing  help  !  Suppose  he  should  do  it  for  a 
year  or  years,  what  would  the  labor  and  trouble 
amount  to  !  To  just  nothing  at  all.  Hence  I  say, 
If,  when  this  state  of  the  case  is  properly  laid 
before  him,  he  is  not  willing  to  go  with  some  attent 
and  perseverance  of  prayer  to  possible  Almighty 
God  for  help,  he  cannot  be  considered  as  being 
really  desirous  of  help.  He  deceives  himself  if  he 
thinks  he  is.  It  may  be  that  he  desires  to  have 
the  truth  at  some  time  between  now  and  never ;  but 
as  to  wishing  to  have  it  now,  the  thing  is  absurd. 
Much  more  absurd  is  it  to  suppose  that  a  man  who 
really  believes  in  the  prayer  answering  God  of  the 
Scriptures,  but  who  does  not  know  what  to  believe 


98  A  SINCERE   WISH  FOR  LIGHT. 

on  other  important  matters,  and  yet  honestly  desires 
to  know  —  much  more  absurd  is  it  to  suppose  that 
such  a  man  would,  after  the  matter  has  been  properly 
laid  before  kirn,  stoutly  refuse  to  breathe  a  brief 
whisper  or  a  series  of  brief  whispers,  vocal  or  men- 
tal, up  into  a  merciful  heaven  for  light ;  that  heaven 
which  keeps  the  key  of  all  mysteries,  and,  when  it 
chooses,  can  shoot  back  with  supreme  ease  the  an- 
cient and  massive  bolts  on  which  genius  and  in- 
dustry might  wrench  for  ages  in  vain.  So,  man  of 
doubt  or  dim  views,  will  you  not  apply  this  test 
to  yourself  ?  Whatever  your  special  darkness  is,  are 
you  wilhng  to  pray  to  God  perseveringly  for  light  ? 
Has  it  been  your  practice  to  do  so  ;  or,  your  atten- 
tion having  now  been  drawn  specially  to  this  method 
of  help,  will  you  make  it  your  practice  hereafter  ? 
If  you  cannot  answer  affirmatively,  consider  that 
in  respect  to  honest  desire  to  know  the  truth  you 
have  been  weighed  in  the  balance  and  are  found 
wanting;. 

3.  If  you  have  an  honest  desire  to  know  the  truth, 
you  are  not  altogether  without  some  direct,  personal 
effort  to  investigate  that  truth. 

When  a  man  has  lost  his  way  and  desires  to  find 
it  at  once,  what  does  he  ?  For,  certainly,  he  does 
something.  His  mind  takes  on  wakefulness.  His 
eye  looks  for  guide-boards,  and  notes  the  bearing 
of  roads.  Instinctively  he  watches  for  some  famil- 
iar object  or  phase  of  the  landscape  which  shall 
serve  as  a  clew  of  guidance.     If  he  meets  a  person 


TESTS.  99 

who  may  give  liim  information  he  takes  the  trouble 
to  question  him.  Remembering  that  he  has  in  his 
pocket  what  professes  to  be  a  guide-book  for  that 
part  of  the  country,  he  takes  the  trouble  to  examine 
it.  Of  course  the  thoroughness  and  eagerness  with 
which  all  this  is  done  depends  on  the  degree  of  con- 
cern he  feels  at  being  lost ;  but  if  he  feels  concern 
in  any  degree  he  shows  it  instinctively  in  some  of 
these  active  measures.  Should  he  saunter  smilingly 
along  without  an  effort  to  compare  roads,  or  to 
lift  his  eyes  to  spell  out  faded  directions  at  cor- 
ners, or  to  ask  the  persons  he  meets,  or  to  study 
the  map  within  reach  of  his  hand,  men  would  say 
that  he  either  is  insane,  or  has  no  real  desire  to  re- 
cover his  way,  at  least  just  yet.  So,  whatever  desire 
a  man  has,  it  at  once  sets  him  to  looking  after 
the  appropriate  natural  means  of  gratifying  it ; 
and  if  he  finds  such  means  accessible  and  capable 
of  being  used,  with  little  or  no  expense  of  time 
and  labor,  he  is  sure  to  be  found  working  them  ; 
feebly,  if  the  moving  desire  is  feeble  ;  strongly, 
if  the  desire  is  strong.  Thus  if  a  man  sincerely 
wants  to  have  your  interests  promoted,  and  if 
there  are  many  opportunities  and  means  of  pro- 
moting them  open  to  him  and  continually  occurring, 
some  of  which  can  be  used  without  any  appreciable 
trouble  to  himself,  why,  ho  is  certainly  doing  more 
or  less  in  your  behalf.  He  does  not  content  him- 
self with  praying  for  you.  He  does  not  refuse  to 
lift  a  finger  or  turn  a  corner  in  the  natural  way  of 


100  A    SINCERE   WISH  FOR  LIGHT. 

helping  you.  Should  a  professed  friend  of  yours  do 
so,  you  would  turn  your  back  on  his  professions  of 
regard  as  altogether  hollow  and  worthless. 

Now  human  nature  necessarily  acts  just  so  under 
the  influence  of  a  desire  to  know  truth  in  religion. 
There  are  natural  means  and  opportunities,  recog- 
nized as  such  by  us  all,  looking  toward  the  clearing 
up  of  religious  problems.  And  some  of  these  are 
exceedingly  simple  and  easy,  so  simple  and  easy 
that  their  use  would  be  no  real  tax  on  the  time  or 
strength  or  patience  of  any.  How  many  persons 
within  your  reach  who  credibly  profess  to  have 
studied  the  points  on  which  you  are  in  the  dark,  and 
to  have  come  to  clear  views  !  Would  it  be  any 
trouble  worth  mentionino;  to  confer  now  and  then 
with  such  persons  as  they  cross  your  path  ?  How 
many  books  and  essays,  lying  about  on  all  sides,  and 
written  expressly  to  throw  light  on  these  very  points 
of  your  perplexity —  how  many  tracts  and  sermons 
which  sincere  men  have  penned  and  spoken  with 
the  hope  of  helping  such  as  you !  And  who  will 
speak  of  the  trouble  of  glancing  over  some  of  these 
with  an  eye  to  getting  the  help  proposed  !  More- 
over, there  are  always  floating  about  in  the  com- 
munity and  starting  up  in  your  own  experience  — 
facts,  suggestions^  gleams  of  explanation  and  truth, 
which  a  little  wakefulness  of  mind  might  turn  to 
great  account  in  the  way  of  resolving  your  diffi- 
culties. And  then  there  is  study,  properly  so- 
called,  the  bending  of  your  own  solitary  investiga- 


TESTS.  101 

ting  thought  on  your  difficulties  ;  a  thing  to  which 
are  all  degrees,  from  those  painful  wrestlings  that 
exhaust  the  soul  down  to  that  gentle  exercise  of  the 
reason  which  hardly  whispers  of  labor.  This  being 
so,  what  I  affirm  is,  that  if  you  have  a  sincere  desire 
to  know  the  truth  it  must  be  that  you  are  making 
more  or  less  use  of  these  natural  means  of  knowl- 
edge. All  experience  shows  that  the  two  things  go 
together.  Do  you  read  or  study  or  inquire  or  watch 
in  any  degree  simply  for  the  end  of  discovering  what 
is  true  ?  Is  your  mind  somewhat  in  an  investigating 
attitude  ?  The  question  is  not  whether  you  spend 
time  in  thinking,  reading,  arguing  on  the  dim  sub- 
ject ;  but  whether  you  do  it  as  a  means  of  bringing 
out  the  facts  in  the  case.  Men  talk,  hunt  up  diffi- 
culties, inquire,  and  dispute,  often  to  show  their 
ingenuity  or  for  a  reason  still  worse.  If  there  is  no 
real  effi)rt  to  properly  use  the  means  of  investiga- 
tion lying  about  you,  you  deceive  yourself  if  you 
suppose  you  have  an  honest  desire  to  know  the 
truth. 

4.  If  you  have  a  sincere  desire  to  know  the  truth, 
you  act  according  to  the  law  of  the  truth  you  already 
receive  as  such. 

Grant  that  you  wish  to  have  all  the  great  re- 
ligious questions  settled  in  your  mind,  not  as  it 
would  suit  your  taste  or  present  convenience,  but 
according  to  truth.  Why  do  you  wish  it  ?  Evi- 
dently because  you  love  truth  for  its  own  sake  ;  or 
because  your  better  judgment  has  convinced  you 


102  A  SINCERE   WISH  FOR  LIGHT. 

that  to  know  things  as  they  are  and  to  act  accord- 
ingly, will,  in  the  long  run,  be  your  true  wisdom. 
If  you  love  the  truth  for  its  own  sake,  you  love  the 
laws  of  truth,  and,  of  course,  obedience  to  those 
laws.  That  is  to  say,  you  govern  your  conduct  by 
the  truth  as  far  as  you  know  it :  for  he  who  loves 
virtue  will  practice  virtue.  If  you  choose  the  truth 
because  it  is  wise  for  your  interests  to  do  so,  you 
really  intend  to  walk  by  it,  if  discovered :  for  you 
know  perfectly  well  that  the  knowing  will  be  of  no 
service  to  you,  but  rather  a  disadvantage,  without 
the  w^alking.  For  example,  if  you  wish  to  know 
that  there  is  a  God,  in  case  there  is,  you  seriously 
propose  to  act  suitably  on  the  fact  should  it  be  dis- 
covered. If  you  wish  to  know  that  the  Scriptures 
are  His  word,  in  case  they  are,  you  mean  to  treat 
them  as  such  in  reverence  and  obedience  should  you 
find  tliem  true.  If  you  wish  to  know  that  the  day 
of  Divine  grace  to  men  is  limited,  if  indeed  the 
stern  truth  be  so,  you  propose  on  making  discovery 
of  the  same  to  live  as  becomes  a  probationer  for 
eternity.  Now,  with  these  intentions  of  conforming 
to  undiscovered  truth,  it  is  very  certain  how  you  are 
treating  that  already  discovered.  You  are  obeying 
it.  You  are  habitually  governing  your  life  and 
heart  by  it.  A  true  purpose  to  go  by  the  unknown 
when  found  is  a  true  purpose  to  go  by  the  known 
now  that  it  is  found. 

And  now   let  us  see  what  religious    truth  you 
do  recognize  as  such.      You    believe   in    natural 


TESTS.  108 

religion,  in  the  law  of  conscience.  Does  your 
conscience  in  the  main  govern  you,  and  is  it  your 
great  question  and  struggle  from  day  to  day  to 
know  and  do  your  duty  ?  You  believe  that  a  God 
and  a  Divine  Christianity  are  possible,  at  least.  And 
if  they  may  be,  it  is  intuitively  your  wisdom  to  act 
largely  as  though  they  certainly  are.  You  surely 
will  come  to  no  harm  by  acting  suitably  to  the  idea 
of  a  holy  God  and  a  holy  religion  ;  but  by  refusing 
so  to  act  you  will  destroy  yourself,  in  case  a  God 
and  Divine  Christianity  are  facts.  The  very  possi- 
bility of  their  proving  to  be  facts  lays  you  under 
obligation  to  your  own  safety  to  shape  your  course 
and  character  into  forms  of  virtue.  I  take  the 
trouble  to  state  this ;  but  you  knew  it  and  felt  it 
long  ago.  Everybody  knows  that  it  is  perfectly 
safe  to  govern  himself  by  the  general  Christian  rules 
of  living;  and  knows  equally  well  that  it  is  unsafe 
not  to  do  it.  Do  you  govern  yourself  by  these 
rules  ?  This  great  fact  of  the  possibility  of  a  Holy 
God  and  His  written  Word  —  are  you  acting  accord- 
ing to  it  ?  By  making  fair  answer  to  these  questions, 
you  will  be  able  to  decide  whether  there  is  really 
within  you  an  honest  desire  to  know  the  truth,  on 
whichever  side  of  your  dark  questions  it  may  lie.  If 
you  must  confess  that  the  tenor  of  your  life  treats 
such  truths  as  you  do  believe  as  if  they  were  false, 
and  that  you  have  no  purpose  of  immediately  doing 
otherwise ;  why,  the  faithful  test  is  against  you. 
Your  heart  is  yet  vacant  of  that  principle  which, 


104  A  SINCERE  WISH  FOR  LIGHT. 

as  a  guide  to  truth  in  religion,  is  worth  more  than 
any  genius  and  learning  that  were  ever  sung  and 
crowned  among  men. 

A  man  flatters  himself  that  he  has  a  mine  of  gold 
on  his  farm.  He  goes  to  a  geologist  and  begs  him 
to  make  an  examination.  As  soon  as  the  man  of 
science  comes  to  the  district  where  tlie  mine  is  sup- 
posed to  lie  he  begins  to  inquire  into  tlie  character 
of  the  rocks.  What  are  the  strata  that  crop  out  to 
view  in  the  fields  ?  He  knows  that  gold  is  not  found 
out  of  certain  geologic  connections  ;  and  if  he  finds 
that  there  is  neither  primary  rock,  nor  transition, 
nor  the  lowest  sandstone  on  that  farm,  he  is  obhged 
to  tell  the  man  that  his  hopes  are  vain.  He  need 
not  trouble  himself  to  dig  down  some  hundreds  of 
feet  in  order  to  decide  whether  he  is  proprietor  of 
a  yellow  mine.  The  fact  is  plain  at  the  surface. 
The  precious  metal  is  not  found  in  connection  with 
that  sort  of  rock.  And  wdien  a  man  wants  to  know 
whether  he  has  within  him  that  precious  thing, 
worth  more  than  mines  of  gold,  namely,  an  honest 
desire  to  know  the  truth  on  dark  questions  of  relig- 
ion, a  bare  inspection  of  the  surface  will  often  provide 
him  with  an  answer.  Does  he  insist  on  demonstra- 
tions as  a  condition  of  faith  ?  Is  he  unwilling  to 
pray  to  Almighty  God  for  light  —  to  God  either  as 
actual  or  possible  ?  Is  he  altogether  without  effort 
to  use  the  natural  means  and  opportunities  of  gain- 
ing light  which  fall  in  his  way  ?  Does  he  neglect 
to  act  according  to  the  truth  he  already  receives  ? 


WELLf  105 

If  so,  then  I  pronounce  that  tlie  treasure  he  is  look- 
ing for  is  not  in  him.  These  are  not  the  riglit 
scientific  connections  for  it.  It  goes  with  quite 
opposite  sorts  of  conduct.  Let  him  give  up  all 
hopes  of  finding  it  under  such  a  kind  of  surface. 
Still  it  is  worth  while  for  him  to  consider  that  in 
one  important  respect  his  situation  differs  very  ma- 
terially from  that  of  the  disappointed  gold-seeker. 
Once  satisfied  that  he  has  not  a  mine  on  his  estate, 
that  proprietor  knows  that  he  never  will  have  it  till 
his  dying  day.  The  soil  beneath  his  feet  will  always 
be  dull,  common  earth,  let  him  do  what  he  can. 
But  the  man  who  finds  himself  vacant  of  that  pre- 
cious moral  element  whose  worth  and  tests  I  have 
been  describing,  is  under  no  necessity  of  having 
that  vacancy  continue.  There  are  ways  of  intro- 
ducing the  absent  treasure  into  his  heart.  He  can 
have  a  new  interior  betokened  by  a  new  surface. 
Will  he  have  it  ?     It  is  indispensable. 

Let  me  hope  that  the  Tests  show  that  you  have 
the  indispensable  treasure  ah-eady. 


VII. 

SECOND    CONDITION 

USING   PRESENT   LIGHT. 


VII.    Second  Condition  —  Using  Present  Light. 

1.  GENERAL  LAW IO9 

2.  REASONABLE II3 

3.  EXAMPLE ,116 

4.  APPLICATION 118 


SECOND  CONDITION  -  USING   PRESENT 
LIGHT. 

"VrOU  are  wanting  in  faith.  You  have  concluded 
-■-  to  try  the  reasonable  Bible  Way  for  meeting 
that  want ;  and  on  examination  it  seems  to  you,  I 
will  suppose,  that  you  have  its  first  condition  of  suc- 
cess, namely,  a  sincere  desire  to  know  the  truth. 
Have  you  also  the  second  condition  —  are  you  using 
the  light  you  already  have  ? 

Really,  each  of  the  three  conditions  belonging  to 
the  Bible  plan  for  getting  light,  hides  in  both  the  oth- 
ers. You  cannot  truly  fulfill  one  without  fulfilling 
all.  But  this  does  not  make  it  undesirable  to  invite 
separate  attention  and  action  on  each  condition.  It 
will  give  to  each  the  benefit  of  a  threefold  attempt 
in  its  favor.  It  will,  we  may  hope,  triple  for  each 
the  chances  of  being  clearly  understood,  strongly 
felt,  and  fairly  tried. 

Our  knowledge  always  begins  in  a  single  grain 
of  light.  The  progress  from  the  crude  notion  to 
the  wide  and  sharply  defined  knowledge  is  some- 
times very  rapid  —  so  rapid  that  the  fact  of  a  prog- 
ress can  only  be  detected  by  care  —  but  care  will 
generally  discover  the  day  to  have  been  preceded 
by  the  faintest  dawn,  and  the  full  corn  by  the  ear 
and  the  blade  and  the  single  small  seed. 


110  USING  PRESENT  LIGHT. 

The  mustard  seed  gradually  ripens,  without  hu- 
man care,  into  the  tree  in  which  the  birds  can  lodge. 
Its  growth  is  merely  the  result  of  its  own  nature  and 
natural  circumstances.  In  the  same  way,  some  of 
our  first  faint  notions  of  religious  truth  pass  forward 
into  satisfying  knowledge.  Many  come  to  a  firm 
belief  in  the  Divine  existence  without  any  conscious 
effort  of  investicration,  but  bv  the  insensible  swav- 
ings  of  the  beautiful  and  skillfully  wrought  universe 
which  surrounds  them  from  infancy.  So  at  least 
they  think.  The  landscape  must  become  brighter 
as  the  morning  wears  on  ;  the  child  cannot  help 
improving  in  general  knowledge  as  he  becomes 
older  ;  and  so,  in  religious  things,  time  and  the  in- 
cessant shin  ings  of  Nature  upon  us  necessarily  clear 
up  by  degrees  many  of  our  views.  There  is  no 
conscious  effort  of  oiu'  own  toward  the  result.  The 
growth  of  the  truth  within  us  is  like  that  of  the 
seed  ministered  to  by  the  dews  and  rains  and  sun- 
shines with  which  it  had  nothing  to  do.  But  the 
Bible  gives  us  to  understand  that  when  a  man  has 
fallen  into  religious  darkness  he  cannot  count  on 
any  such  way  out.  He  must  look  to  pass  from  a 
little  light  to  a  greater,  by  voluntary  effort  to  use 
duly  the  light  already  possessed.  He  must  do  busi- 
ness wisely  with  the  first  installment  of  knowledge 
given  him  before  he  can  receive  another.  Only 
two  talents  are  placed  in  his  hands  at  first :  it  is  by 
judicious  trading  with  his  small  capital  that  he  must 
come  at  last  to  find  it  doubled  and  the  lordship  of 


GENERAL  LAW,  111 

cities  vested  in  him.  When  the  son  enters  on  busi- 
ness, does  his  prudent  father  set  him  up  at  once  with 
the  full  patrimony  ?  He  gives  him  a  little  to  make 
his  first  venture  upon.  If  that  little  is  used  with 
judgment  more  is  intrusted.  Thus  by  degrees  the 
vounor  merchant  may  become  fit  to  manage,  and 
worthy  to  receive,  the  great  capital  which  can  whiten 
the  sea  with  ships  and  fill  stately  warehouses  with 
goods. 

Once  in  a  while  men  pass  abruptly  from  want  to 
affluence.  An  hour  is  sufficient  to  change  their  rags 
into  robes  of  honor,  their  crusts  into  dainties,  their 
cabins  into  palaces.  But  this  is  not  the  common 
way  of  gaining  riches.  A  few  dollars  are  gained, 
these  are  made  the  stepping-stone  to  others,  the 
double  sum  is  made  to  roll  up  another,  and  so  the 
accumulation  goes  on  at  a  constantly  accelerated 
pace,  until,  at  the  end  of  years,  a  fortune  is  found  to 
be  made.  Using  the  little  judiciously  has  made  the 
poor  man  rich.  —  I  see  a  man  eminent  for  his  learn- 
ing. Let  me  question  him  as  to  the  way  in  which 
he  has  succeeded  in  collecting  such  stores  of  knowl- 
edge, and  I  shall  not  find  that  they  were  imported 
into  his  mind  in  one  overwhelming  cargo.  On  the 
contrary,  I  shall  find  that  once  the  simple  letters  of 
the  alphabet  made  up  the  entire  sum  of  his  science ; 
that  he  then  traded  with  this  small  capital  till  he 
had  learned  the  art  of  reading ;  that  by  the  diligent 
use  of  the  art  of  reading  he  next  helped  himself  to 
a  knowledge  of  the  common  branches;  that  by  put- 


112  USING  PRESENT  LIGHT. 

ting  these  together  he  then  slowly  mounted  mto  the 
region  of  the  difficult  sciences ;  and  that  thus  by 
making  every  acquisition  minister  to  another  he  at 
last  reached  the  proud  eminence  of  a  famous  phi- 
losopher. Using  the  Httle  diligently  has  made  the 
ignorant  man  learned.  —  It  is  by  precisely  the  same 
process  that  virtue  is  expanded  into  its  nobler  de- 
grees and  forms.  No  one  ever  knew  a  good  man 
grow  in  his  goodness  save  in  one  way.  With  the 
one  talent  of  repentance  feebly  shining  in  his  heart 
he  goes  a-trading  and  makes  it  two.  He  gains  new 
virtue  only  by  using  that  already  possessed.  Jus- 
tice grows  by  the  practice  of  justice ;  truthfulness 
by  the  practice  of  truthfulness  ;  love  by  the  prac- 
tice of  love  ;  meekness,  temperance,  purity,  by  the 
practice  of  these  virtues.  "  Do  good  and  be  better, 
do  better  and  be  best,"  is  the  law  of  the  spiritual  life, 
of  wdiich  none  are  ignorant  w^ho  have  taken  their 
moral  science  from'  the  Bible  or  observation. 

See  the  general  style  of  that  economy  under 
which  we  live !  Its  way  is  to  give  a  little,  and  if 
that  is  rightly  used,  to  give  more.  As  the  man  of 
business  swells  his  estate,  the  politician  his  honor, 
the  scholar  his  science,  the  talented  his  various 
mental  faculties,  the  swift  his  alacrity,  the  strong 
his  strength,  the  good  man  his  virtue,  so  must  the 
man  of  defective  religious  knowledge  increase  his 
little  into  much.  Especially  the  man  who  has 
fallen  into  the  leading  and  abysmal  unbeliefs.  As 
he  comi)lains  of  the  chill  darkness  let  him  heed  the 


REASONABLE.  113 

Scriptures  as  they  assure  him  that  one  of  the  most 
important  questions  bearing  on  rehef  which  he  can 
ask  himself  is,  Am  I  diligently  using  the  light  that 
I  have  ? 

It  seems  but  just  that  if  men  fail  to  improve  a 
little  light  more  should  be  withheld,  and  that  if 
they  make  the  most  of  their  scanty  information  they 
should  be  rewarded  with  larger  instruction.  Do 
we  blame  the  father  who  gauges  his  outlay  upon 
his  son's  education  according  to  the  disposition  that 
son  manifests  to  improve  the  advantages  already  in 
his  possession  ?  Do  we  blame  the  father  who  de- 
termines not  to  send  to  the  university  the  son  who 
never  shows  any  taste  for  the  employments  of  the 
common  school  ?  It  is  likely  that  if  we  abuse  hints 
and  gleams  of  religious  truth,  we  would  abuse  also 
ampler  light.  He  who  is  unjust  in  that  which  is  least 
would  be  unjust  also  in  much.  The  man  who  mis- 
uses a  hundred  dollars  would  be  likely  to  misuse  a 
thousand.  The  man  who  wastes  the  gleanings  of  a 
field  cannot  be  expected  to  do  rightly  by  the  entire 
harvest.  Hence,  were  God  to  grant  more  light  on 
religious  subjects  to  him  who  does  not  improve  the 
little  he  has,  it  would  probably  only  go  to  increase 
the  receiver's  guilt.  For  to  whomsoever  much  is 
given,  of  him  shall  much  be  required,  and  to  whom 
men  have  committed  much,  of  him  they  will  ask  the 
more. 

Suppose  God  to  do  something  very  strange  to  the 
spirit   of  the    Bible ;  suppose  Him  to  give    a  man 

8 


114  USING  PRESENT  LIGHT. 

whose  views  of  religious  truth  are  very  meager  and 
unsatisfactory  to  understand  that  his  chances  for 
additional  light  will  in  no  degree  depend  on  the 
manner  in  which  he  treats  the  light  already  in  his 
possession.  "  Wrap  your  one  talent  of  truth  in  a 
napkin  if  you  will,  I  shall  be  just  as  ready  to  give 
you  another  as  if  you  had  put  my  first  gift  out  at 
usury.  Employ  the  one  torch  which  I  have  given 
to  assist  you  in  finding  your  way  upward  through 
this  dark  world  for  the  purpose  of  lighting  your 
path  downward  if  you  will,  it  will  make  no  dif- 
ference with  your  prospect  of  receiving  from  me 
other  torches."  What  would  be  the  effect  on  that 
man  of  such  a  w^ord  of  God  ?  If  he  could  believe 
that  such  a  message  could  come  from  the  Author  of 
that  Nature  to  whose  whole  spirit  it  is  opposed, 
would  it  not  exert  upon  him  an  influence  of  unmin- 
gled  perniciousness  ?  But  how  different  the  ten- 
dency were  God  to  address  him  in  another  strain  ! 
"  See !  I  have  given  you  a  few  rays  of  sacred 
knowledge.  It  is  not  much,  but  if  you  honestly  try 
to  walk  by  this  you  shall  have  more.  Observe  that 
I  do  not  require  you  to  walk  according  to  the  sun- 
light wdiich  others  have  ;  only  according  to  the 
starlight  which  you  have.  If  you  obey,  other  stars 
shall  in  due  time  make  their  appearance  ;  and  if  you 
continue  to  obey,  at  last  you  shall  see  the  morning- 
star  and  the  sun.  On  the  other  hand,  if  your  small 
stewardship  is  turned  to  no  account  or  a  bad  one, 
do  not  expect  anything  further  from  me.     Expect 


REASONABLE.  115 

rather  that  from  him  who  hath  not  shall  be  taken 
away  even  that  which  he  hath."  Would  not  such 
words  sound  altogether  reasonable  to  that  hearer, 
and  would  they  have  upon  him  one  tendency  other 
than  salutary  ?  The  arrangement  which  it  would  be 
well  for  God  to  make,  the  Bible  tells  us  is  made 
actually  —  that  it  is  a  standing  condition  of  prog- 
ress in  religious  knowledge  that  we  try  to  walk  in 
the  light  of  the  knowledge  we  already  have. 

Grant  that  you  are  so  unhappy  as  to  have  but  dim 
views  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  Religion.  You  wish 
a  clearer  vision.  You  want  to  look  on  the  creden- 
tials of  Christ  and  the  Bible  as  some  men  have 
looked  on  them  —  with  a  faith  firmer  than  the  ever- 
lasting hills  and  stronger  than  death.  Is  there  no 
way  in  which  your  wish  can  be  fulfilled  ?  Says 
the  Bible,  There  is.  A  glorious  full  assurance  of 
faith  is  possible  to  you.  There  are  some  things 
which  you  already  clearly  know.  That  the  precepts 
of  the  Scriptures  in  the  main  correctly  express  your 
duty  you  are  well  satisfied.  You  have  your  one  tal- 
ent of  light :  with  this  you  must  trade.  You  have 
your  twilight :  you  must  do  your  best  to  walk  by  it. 
The  duties  of  which  your  conscience  assures  you, 
you  must  labor  to  fulfill.  This  will  be  doing  what 
the  Magi  are  said  to  have  done  —  following  a  star 
toward  Jesus  Christ.  And,  as  those  wise  men  of 
the  East  are  said  to  have  done,  you  will  at  last  come 
in  due  course  of  your  star-following  into  the 
presence  of  the  Sun. 


116  USING  PRESENT  LIGHT. 

Nor  do  I  know  of  a  better  illustration  of  this 
whole  process  of  getting  light  in  religion  by  using 
light  already  gotten,  than  this  same  story  of  the  Wise 
Men  as  told  in  the  New  Testament  and  held  in  the 
Christian  traditions.  O  three  kings,  nestling  in 
oriental  ease  and  pomp,  serenely  studying  the  se- 
rener  heavens  in  star-gazing  Chaldaea,  what  is  the 
matter !  Why  these  flushed  faces,  these  eager  eyes, 
these  animated  conferences  !  Why  this  running  to 
and  fro  of  retainers,  this  culling  of  treasures,  this 
lading  of  kneeling  camels,  this  marshaling  of  the 
caravan  I  A  strange  star  has  shone  in  the  west, 
night  after  night.  Plainly  it  is  not  a  common  star 
—  these  astronomers  have  read  the  sky  too  long  and 
well  to  be  in  doubt  here.  And  then,  perhaps,  they 
have  had  a  dream  ;  or  some  vague  tradition  of  the 
star  that  should  arise  out  of  Jacob  has  floated  down 
to  them  from  the  times  of  the  Captivity ;  or  some 
faint  echoes  of  the  current  Jewish  expectation  of 
Messiah  have  travelled  forth  and  died  away  in  their 
doubtful  ears.  They  have  put  this  and  that  to- 
gether. This  is  all  that  they  have  for  supposing 
that  the  star  they  have  seen  points  at  the  birth  and 
locality  of  One  whom  they  will  do  well  to  find  and 
honor.  It  is  but  a  mere  hint :  but  then  a  hint  from 
the  sky  is  not  to  be  neglected.  So  they  set  for- 
ward. In  vain  friends  beseech,  dangers  menace, 
various  plans  and  affairs  urge  their  claims  —  they 
say  their  adieus  and  set  forward  with  eyes  fixed 
on   the   star.     It   is  a  very  small   light  —  a  mere 


EXAMPLE.  117 

grain  of  gold  on  the  sky.  But  tliey  soon  notice 
that  it  moves  before  them.  Clouds  sometimes  hide 
it  from  view  ;  sometimes  mountains  interpose  their 
opaque  bulk  ;  in  the  day  it  is  never  visible.  But 
they  gradually  become  aware  that,  visible  or  invisi- 
ble, it  is  delicately  adjusting  its  going  to  their  going  ; 
and  that  the  faint  accents  of  the  Messianic  tradi- 
tions are  thickenino;  and  streno-thening  in  the  air  as 
they  advance.  So  onward,  brave  kings  and  kingly 
souls,  with  ever  brave  hearts,  though  distant  Ja- 
cob is  to  you  as  the  ends  of  the  earth  are  to  us  !  On 
through  parched  sand-plains,  over  rugged  steppes, 
across  broad  rivers,  among  robber-hordes ;  from  city 
to  city,  from  province  to  province,  from  country  to 
country !  It  is  a  long  travel ;  but  as  grows  the 
travel  so  grows  the  encouragement.  At  last  Judaea 
is  reached.  They  find  everywhere  among  the  peo- 
ple a  positive  expectation  of  just  such  a  Personage 
as  they  are  looking  for.  Here  too  they  find  the 
still  larger  encouragement  and  light  of  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  with  their  gradually  brighten- 
ing lines  of  prophecies  converging  on  this  very 
time  and  on  this  very  land.  Surely  they  are  trad- 
ing with  the  light  to  some  purpose !  With  firm 
tread  and  eye  elate  with  confidence,  they  move 
swiftly  along  the  beaten  and  storied  highways  of  the 
Holy  Land.  Omens  of  success,  pregnant  rumors 
of  a  glorious  sequel  to  their  pilgrimage  thicken  on 
every  hand.  And  now  the  star  rapidly  expands. 
It   draws    earthward.     It  hangs  motionless.     The 


118  USING  PRESENT  LIGHT. 

journey  is  ended.  Lo,  this  is  Bethlehem !  Lo, 
here  is  a  manger,  and  here  the  wonderful  Child ! 
O  infant  King,  O  Star  of  Jacob,  O  Sun  of  right- 
eousness —  into  what  a  day  has  the  original  star- 
light of  these  men  opened  ?  The  faint  gleam  ;  the 
gleam  moving,  the  gleam  moving  in  sympathy  with 
their  progress ;  the  growing  voices  in  the  air ;  the 
written  Scri])tures,  the  climactic  Babe  !  Sublime 
progress  !  By  patiently  using  the  little,  it  has  be- 
come much.  By  twiliglit  duly  improved,  the  pil- 
grims have  gradually  come  to  tlie  noon  of  knowledge. 
Now  they  are  sure  of  the  actual  arrival  of  the  king 
whose  character  and  mission  they  can  more  fully 
spell  out  at  their  leisure  from  the  written  Word 
they  have  found.  No  wonder  they  rejoice  with 
exceeding  great  joy.  How  pour  the  costly  gifts  ! 
How  swales  that  lowly  shed  with  frankincense 
and  myrrh  !  How  lightens  it  with  Orient  gold ! 
Fit  sign  of  the  joyful  light  within  these  wise 
and  royal  pilgrims  —  all  gained  by  steadily  acting 
on  the  mere  glimmer  with  which  their  pilgrimage 
began. 

See  how  you  are  to  do,  you  whose  religious  light 
is  now  so  weak — a  mere  star  shedding  pale  rays 
through  the  wide  darkness  of  your  night !  You  are 
to  begin  acting  without  delay  on  that  starlight.  You 
are  to  set  forward  on  tliat  little.  You  are  to  try 
going  by  that  little  as  well  as  you  can.  .  Have  you 
not  a  conscience  that  says  that  certain  things  are 
right  and  certain   things  wrong?     Do  those  right 


APPLICATION.  119 

things  and  refuse  to  do  those  wrong  things.  Are 
you  not  persuaded  that  the  precepts  of  the  Bible, 
at  least  in  the  main,  are  reasonable  and  righteous  ? 
Reduce  them  to  practice.  This  will  be  turning  such 
light  as  you  liave  to  account.  It  will  be  following 
the  star.  It  will  be  doing  over  in  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury what  the  Magi  are  said  to  have  done  in  the  first. 
Follow  your  star  steadily,  despite  some  difficulties. 
You  will  find  it  moving  before  you.  You  will  find  it 
gradually  gaining  diameter  and  suiting  itself  to  your 
motions.  It  will  gradually  attract  about  your  path 
hints  of  truth,  prophecies.  Mosaic  economies,  new 
dispensations.  At  last  it  will  stop  over  Bethlehem  ; 
and  you  shall  go  in  by  open  door  to  find  Jesus  and 
God,  with  the  Bible  in  outstretched  hands,  offering 
it  to  you.  Your  journey  is  ended.  Thanks  to  your 
star-following,  with  its  implications,  your  journey 
is  ended  most  successfully.  And  I  assure  you,  my 
friends,  you  will  then  in  the  great  joy  of  your  hearts 
keep  Epiphany,  the  feast  of  the  three  kings.  You  will 
open  your  treasures  and  give  the  goodliest  of  them 
all  in  one  great  Act  of  Faith.  Your  trading  with 
the  one  talent  will  have  made  it  ten  talents.  Had 
you  kept  it  laid  up  in  a  napkin  you  would  have  been 
cast  forth  into  the  outer  darkness.  So  greatly  prom- 
ise and  threaten  the  Scriptures. 

No  one  has  a  right  to  complain  of  a  little  light  on 
religious  subjects,  if,  on  duly  using  that  little,  he 
can  have  more,  and  so  on  indefinitely.  Men  do 
complain  of  it.     It  seems  mysteriously  hard  that  on 


120  USING  PRESENT  LIGHT. 

such  momentous  topics  as  belong  to  religion  it  should 
be  left  possible  for  man  to  have  such  dim  and  par- 
tial views  as  prevail.  Say  the  Scriptures,  What  is 
there  hard  in  it  ?  It  does  not  cut  you  off  from  any 
degree  of  knowledge  to  which  you  may  choose  to 
aspire.  All  it  does  is  to  condition  success  on  exer- 
tion and  good  behavior.  Is  there  anything  to  com- 
plain of  in  this  ?  Do  not  parents,  employers, 
rulers  do  the  same  thing  every  day  without  censure  ? 
It  is  best  for  you  to  eat  spiritual  bread  by  the  sweat 
of  your  faces.  It  is  best  that  your  theology  be  a 
moral  discipline  in  the  getting  as  well  as  in  the  en- 
joying. To  succeed  well  in  learning  the  lessons  of 
religion  you  must  work,  work  with  an  honest  pur- 
pose to  find  the  truth,  work  with  the  truth  already 
known  as  your  instrument,  work  after  such  a  mode 
as  is  in  itself  fitted  to  discipline  your  degraded  and 
sinful  nature  back  into  the  noble  type  which  origi- 
nally belonged  to  it.  You  ought  to  be  thankful  for 
such  a  provision.  It  bears  on  its  face  plain  marks 
of  the  wnsdom  and  benevolence  of  its  Author. 

So  the  Bible  proposes  —  and  surely  your  reason 
does  as  much  —  that  you  follow  the  star.  If  you 
embrace  the  proposal,  you  are  like  persons  who 
have  lost  their  way  in  a  cavern  of  great  length. 
After  groping  for  a  while  in  utter  darkness  they  dis- 
cover far  aw^ay  a  faint  gleam  of  light.  They  are 
glad,  for  they  know  that  there  is  the  spot  where  their 
prison  opens  up  into  glorious  day.  All  they  have  to 
do  is  to  set  and  keep  themselves  in  motion  toward 


APPLICATION.  121 

it.  It  costs  them  trouble  to  advance  among  slippery 
and  broken  rocks  ;  but  they  have  it  for  their  en- 
couragement that  their  condition  is  improving  with 
every  step  they  take.  The  light,  as  they  use  it, 
steadily  increases  ;  they  are  every  moment  acquiring 
dexterity  and  hardihood  in  surmounting  the  diffi- 
culties of  their  way.  At  last  they  stand  at  the  en- 
trance, and  look  abroad  on  sky  and  field  and  flood 
all  bathed,  not  indeed  in  perfect,  but  in  smiling  and 
beautiful  day. 

Let   me   hope  that  you  are  faithfully  trying  to 
walk  accordhig  to  the  light  you  already  have  !       ♦ 


VIII. 

THIRD    CONDITION- 
PATIENT   DIRECT   SEEKING. 


VIII.     Third   Condition  —  Patient   Direct 
Seeking. 

1.  THE   METHOD .  .  I25 

2.  THE   METHOD  JUSTIFIED I3I 

3.  THE    METHOD   URGED I4I 

4.  THE   METHOD  ACCEPTED I43 


THIRD   CONDITION  — PATIENT  DIRECT 
SEEKING. 

"V/'OU  are  wanting  in  faith.  You  have  concluded 
-■-  to  try  the  reasonable  Bible  Way  for  meeting 
that  want.  On  examination  it  seems  to  you,  I  will 
suppose,  that  you  have  already  met  the  first  tw^o 
conditions  of  that  Way ;  that  you  have  a  sincere 
wish  to  know  the  truth,  and  are  actually  using  such 
religious  truth  as  you  already  have.  Then  ask 
finally  whether  you  will  meet  the  remaining  condi- 
tion, whether  you  will  'patiently  seek  light  in  the 
twofold  way  of  prayer  and  rational  inquiry. 

Let  me  give  you  the  Biblical  idea  in  regard  to 
this  whole  matter  of  direct  seeking  for  blessings,  as 
it  stands  related  to  the  Divine  government.  I  will 
give  it  quite  from  the  believer's  point  of  view.  This 
is  what  one  really  needs  who  has  it  in  contemplation 
to  give  the  pure  Bible  plan  for  getting  light  a  fair 
trial. 

See  the  Idea. 

The  government  of  God  is  such  that  we  are  sure 
to  receive  many  blessings  from  it  even  if  we  do  not 
seek  them.  Just  as  the  ground  drinks  in  the  sun- 
beams and  dews  and  rains,  and  yet  stretches  out 
no  hand  to  labor  and  lifts  no  voice  to  pray ;  so  do 


126  PATIENT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

men  constantly  receive  good  things  from  God  with- 
out the  slightest  effort  to  win  them.  Were  we  to 
have  no  gratitude,  and  even  blaspheme  heaven  for 
its  gifts,  still  they  would  come.  The  Mysterious 
One  would  treat  us  just  as  He  does  the  desert. 
Yonder  expanse  of  sand  yields  not  a  blade  of  grass, 
not  a  cup  of  water;  and  sometimes  its  fevered 
bosom  breathes  up  pestilential  airs  into  heaven. 
But  the  dews  settle  on  the  thankless  and  hostile 
waste  even  as  on  Hermon.  God  waters  it  abun- 
dantly witli  His  showers,  even  as  He  does  the  plain 
of  Sharon  and  the  ridges  of  the  corn-field.  The 
vitalizino;  sun  darts  on  it  the  same  genial  light  and 
warmth  which  make  green  the  pastures  of  Bethle- 
hem and  purple  the  vineyards  of  Engedi. 

And  what  follows  ?  Are  seekers  and  no-seekers 
on  equally  good  footing  with  the  government  of 
God  ?  Shall  we  say,  What  is  the  Almighty  that  we 
should  serve  Him,  and  what  profit  should  we  have 
if  w^e  pray  unto  Him  ?  Far  from  it.  Though  we 
shall  have  many  blessings  from  God  without  seek- 
ing, it  is  still  best  to  seek.  He  who  seeks  not  will 
obtain  much,  he  who  seeks  will  obtain  more.  Kind 
to  all,  the  providence  of  God  will  be  kindest  to 
those  who  go  personally  and  knock  at  His  treasury 
forw^hat  they  need.  There  are  many  Sauls  to  whom 
it  is  given  to  reckon  their  prizes  by  thousands  ;  but 
the  Davids  who  reckon  by  tens  of  thousands  are 
those  few,  who,  remembering  that  all  their  springs 
are  in  God,  direct  their  eyes  and  steps  to  the  hills 
whence  cometh  their  help. 


THE  METHOD.  127 

Look  at  the  farmer  in  his  field  !  Do  you  see  him 
working  toward  harvest  with  one  hand  ?  What 
breadth  and  brawn  and  grasp  are  in  tliat  right  hand ; 
how  peacefully  and  steadily  that  single  knot  of  com- 
pact and  straining  muscles  could  apply  itself  to  the 
hoe  or  the  plough  or  the  scythe  !  But  still  through 
all  the  labors  of  the  year  the  brawny  right  shall 
have  help  from  the  brawny  left ;  and  to  both  shall 
be  due  the  success  of  full  barns  after  harvest. 
Seeking  blessings  from  God  usually  consists  of  two 
parts  —  prayer  and  direct  effort  to  realize  the  bless- 
innjs  in  the  line  of  second  causes.  These  are  the 
two  hands,  the  right  and  the  left,  with  which  the 
search  must  be  prosecuted.  For  example,  you  want 
the  blessing  of  clear  knowledge  on  the  main  relig- 
ious questions.  What  shall  you  do  but  both  ask 
the  at  least  possible  God  for  light,  and  s-tudy  to 
gatlier  light  by  rational  inquiry  !  Though  you  can 
pray  powerfully,  prayer  alone  will  not  answer. 
Though  you  can  study  powerfully,  study  alone  wnll 
not  answer.  The  two  strong  hands  must  work  to- 
gether toward  the  desired  result ;  must  combine  in 
that  searching  which  issues  in  the  finding. 

Sometimes  the  blessing  is  reached  after  an  ex- 
ceedinglv  brief  seekino;.  We  have  to  lift  but  one 
prayer  and  strike  but  one  blow,  and  the  w^ork  is 
done.  While  we  are  yet  speaking  for  the  first  time, 
God  hears  ;  and  while  we  are  yet  doing  for  the  first 
time,  lo,  God's  answer,  like  Peter,  is  knocking  at 
the  gate  !     Does  the  sinner  wish  to  open  his  heart 


128  PATIENT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

to  Christ?  One  honest  struggle  witli  himself  and 
one  upward  casting  of  the  eye  for  help,  may  suffice 
to  roll  back  on  its  rusted  hinges  the  iron  gate  which 
for  a  lifetime  Christ  has  rapped  in  vain.  Does  the 
Christian  wish  the  conversion  of  his  friend  ?  One 
^  faithful  appeal  to  that  friend's  conscience  and  one 
humble  appeal  upward,  may  suffice  to  change  the 
sinner  into  a  Christian.  Does  the  man  troubled 
with  unbelief  wish  to  have  day  let  in  on  the  Evi- 
dences ?  One  earnest  cry  heavenward  and  one  com- 
prehensive sweep  of  an  alert  eye  around,  may  dis- 
cover at  once  the  magnificent  total  of  God,  His  Son, 
and  His  Word.  So  brief  is  that  double-handed  seek- 
ing sometimes  required  for  the  finding.  As  the  first 
cast  of  the  net  sometimes  fills  it  with  the  treasures  of 
the  sea;  as  the  first  shaft  sunk  by  the  adventurous 
miner  sometimes  brings  him  to  crystal  waters  or  yel- 
low gold  ;  so  the  first  effort  made  prayerfully  for  the 
Fundamental  Light  may  bring  it  to  you,  even  before 
the  voice  of  the  prayer  has  died  away  on  the  ear,  and 
the  vibration  of  the  stroke  has  ceased  to  tremble 
along  the  muscle.  "  Hear  me/'  said  Elijah  when 
he  had  built  his  altar,  "  O  Lord,  hear  me !  "  And, 
quick  as  thought,  the  fire  of  the  Lord  flashed  re- 
sponse fi'om  a  blue  heaven  and  consumed  the  very 
altar-stones  on  which  the  prophet  would  fain  see 
some  sign  of  Divinity. 

Though  the  seeking  is  sometimes  thus  promptly 
successful,  yet  immediate  success  in  full  measure  can 
seldom  or  never  be  counted  on  with  anv  confidence. 


THE  METHOD.  129 

Though  the  object  sought  be  altogetlierand  mightily 
desirable,  and  though  it  be  sought  after  the  most 
unexceptionable  manner  —  with  deep  sincerity, 
earnestness,  and  free  outlay  of  labor  in  all  appro- 
priate directions  —  yet  we  are  never  justified  in  con- 
cluding that  we  shall  reach  it  immediately  on  our 
first  effort.  It  is  true  we  may  ;  but  there  is  no 
promise  to  that  effect.  We  have  many  and  great 
promises  to  a  proper  seeking  of  proper  objects ;  but 
as  to  the  moment  when  success  shall  come,  nothing 
is  said.  On  this  point  God  holds  himself  in  reserve. 
The  seekin^_rnust  be  patiently  followed  up.  The 
pray^jLJUUSt^^repeated,  the  direct  effort  in  the  line 
of  second  causes  must  be  repeated,  until  such  time 
as  infinite  wisdom  shall  see  fit  to  bestow  the  blessing. 
That  time  may  be  to-day,  or  next  week,  or  next  year. 
The  law  of  the  promise  is.  Seek  till  you  find  ;  Knock 
till  it  is  opened  ;  Imitate  th^  importunate  widow ;  Re- 
member that  God  is  the  rewarder  of  them  who  dili- 
gently seek  him  ;  Search  for  wisdom  as  for  silver  and 
dig  for  it  as  for  hid  treasures.  In  accordance  with 
this  is  the  testimony  of  David :  "  I  waited  patiently  for 
the  Lord  and  He  inclined  to  me  and  heard  my  cry.'* 
And  in  accordance  with  it  has  been  a  multitude  of 
more  recent  experiences.  How  many  beseech  and 
struggle  months  and  years  for  moral  victories  for 
themselves  or  others  ere  gaining  them  !  So  for 
light  on  questions  of  doctrine  —  the  current  expe- 
rience is  that  it  follows  patient  seeking,  Even  as  the 
husbandman  waiteth  for  the    precious  fruit  of  the 


130  PATIENT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

earth,  and  has  long  patience  for  it,  till  he  receive 
the  early  and  latter  rain  ;  so,  very  often,  men  must 
wait  on  God  in  a  long  course  of  mingled  prayer 
and  labor  before  they  can  fill  their  bosoms  with  the 
ripened  sheaves  of  the  blessing  they  seek.  Indeed, 
time  is  found  to  be  an  important  element  in  almost 
all  enterprises.  Blessings  coining  as  soon  as  we  have 
lifted  hand  and  voice  for  them  are  the  rare  excep- 
tions. They  are  uncovenanted.  Beginners  in  re- 
ligion are  apt  to  take  a  different  view.  To  their 
slender  knowledge  of  the  Scripture,  its  promises  to 
prayer  and  seeking  seem  very  unconditioned  ;  as  if 
we  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  utter  one  fervent  pe- 
tition and  give  one  hearty  wrench  on  the  powers  of 
Nature  to  put  the  truthfulness  of  God  under  obli- 
gation to  fulfill  our  desires.  But  advancing  knowl- 
edge shows  them  their  mistake.  They  learn  to  take 
account  oF  the  very  reasonable  and  usual  limitations 
implied  in  the  nature  of  the  subject,  in  the  connec- 
tion, and  in  the  general  scope  of  the  Scriptures. 
They  find  that  aU  the_promises  are  given  to  perse- 
vering seekers.  Patient  diligence  is  seen  to  be 
the  only  sure  key  to  Divine  treasures.  Would  they 
realize  the  being  and  government  of  God  ?  Would 
they  say  with  mighty  conviction  to  Jesus,  "  Rabbi, 
we  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God  ?" 
Would  they  have  a  quick,  bold  faith  in  the  Scrip- 
tures as  an  infallible  and  complete  Divine  Message  ? 
Surely  there  is  a  promise  and  a  way  for  them ;  but 
instead  of  finding  it  a  way  which  a  single  step  will 


THE  METHOD  JUSTIFIED  131 

finish,  they  find  it  paved  with  days  and  weeks  ;  and 
instead  of  unloosing  into  heaven  one  strong-winged 
prayer  and  so  prospering  to  the  top  of  their  bent, 
they  prosper  only  by  dispatching  through  the  sky 
messenger  after  messenger  in  long  procession,  like 
files  of  autumn-birds  departing  in  search  of  summer. 
You  see  at  once  that  this  way  of  granting  bless- 
ings will  often  make  men  prize  them  more  highly. 
It  is  not  always  true  that  what  is  cheaply  gained  is 
little  valued  ;  and  that  on  the  contrary  what  costs 
us  much  comes  to  hold  a  high  place  in  our  estima- 
tion. Yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  it  is  often  so. 
In  very  many  minds  this  is  evidently  the  prevailing 
law  ;  and  in  all  minds,  at  times,  it  exerts  a  very  im- 
portant influence.  Now  this  fact  may  sometimes  be 
sufficient  to  justify  God  in  requiring  patient  seeking 
as  the  condition  of  finding.  The  Searcher  of  hearts 
sees  that  were  He  to  grant  the  object  sought  on  the 
first  application,  or  soon,  the  seeker  would  never 
take  it  so  closely  to  his  heart  as  it  deserves  and 
needs.  He  would  look  on  it  with  a  comparatively 
indifferent  eye.  He  would  neglect  and  scatter  it, 
somevvhat  as  the  young  man  sometimes  does  the  es- 
tate which  came  to  him  through  no  care  and  toil  of 
his  own.  But  should  he  reach  the  blessing  on  the 
path  of  long  and  arduous  prayer,  by  the  strivings 
of  weeks  and  months  with  God  and  himself,  then 
it  would  be  to  him  a  pjscious  Jjiing.  He  would 
watch  and  rejoice  over  it  as  the  miser  does  over  the 
jewel  which  he  has  traveled   half  round  the  world 


132  PATIENT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

to  find.  Now,  it  is  very  necessary  that  a  man 
think  much  of  the  great  and  precious  religious 
L'ght  for  which  he  asks  ;  very  necessary  that  the 
clear  views  of  God,  of  His  Son,  and  of  His  Word 
for  which  he  tries  be  greatly  prized  and  carefully 
kept ;  and  God,  who  knows  the  man  and  bis  cir- 
cumstances thoroughly,  may  see  that  there  is  no 
way  of  securing  this  high  esteem  and  careful  cher- 
ishing so  good  as  that  of  making  him  look  upward 
for  the  blessing  with  a  persevering  eye,  and  labor 
for  it  with  a  persevering  hand.  This  may  be  one 
reason  why  God  puts  him  under  the  unpleasant 
regimen  of  delay.  It  is  not  that  the  Father  above 
is  fond  of  lavinor  burdens  on  men.     It  is  not  that 

«        o 

He  has  a  selfish  vanity  to  gratify  in  seeing  you  come 
humbly  knocking  at  His  gate  day  after  day,  and  in 
making  you  wait  His  good  pleasure.  But  it  is  that 
you  may  have  the  greater  profit  in  the  end  —  that 
you  may  so  prize  the  blessing  when  it  comes  as  to 
make  the  most  of  it. 

You  also  see  at  once  that  the  way  of  patient  seek- 
ing may  itself  involve  <(  very  valuable  moral  disci- 
pline and  culture.  It  learns  one  patient  self-con- 
trol X  it  holds  him  to  honesty  of  purpose  and  steadi- 
ness of  religious  effort ;  it  keeps  him  in  contact  with 
the  idea  of  God,  of  His  government,  and  of  his  own 
dependence  on  it,  as  being  at  least  so  many  gigan- 
tic possibilities.  There  is  wholesome  restraint  here. 
There  is  vast  impulse  here  in  wholesome  directions. 
Here  are  precious  and  elaborate   cultures  —  more 


THE  METHOD  JUSTIFIED.  133 

precious  and  elaborate  than  any  ever  insisted  on  in 
the  schools,  than  any  that  ever  turned  clown  into 
philosopher,  than  any  that  ever  brought  forward 
tropical  gardens  of  orange  and  palm  in  arctic  lati- 
tudes. For  liere  is  a  daily  exercise  of  sincerity  of 
heart,  of  religious  sensibility,  of  industry  in  religious 
directions,  of  a  sense  of  the  Biblical  Religion  as 
being  at  least  an  august  possible  truth  with  its  many 
implied  duties.  So  the  whole  character  is  stressed 
toward  virtue.  So  the  roots  of  all  goodness  are 
made  healthy  and  strong.  So  by  the  continuous 
waving  of  the  slender  sapling  it  gradually  comes  to 
strike  itself  strongly  into  the  soil,  and  thickens  and 
shoots  greenly  upward  night  and  day  into  a  stately 
pillar  propping  the  sky.  Who  shall  say  that  such  a 
result  may  not  often  be  cheaply  purchased  at  the 
expense  of  a  little,  or  a  great  deal,  of  prayerful 
waiting !  The  very  foundations  for  virtue  are  of 
more  consequence  than  time.  We  can  afford  to 
wait  when  waiting  is  itself  so  great  a  blessing. 

Very  often  no  moral  self-control  whatever  is  re- 
quired in  asking  God  once  to  grant  a  certain  wish, 
and  in  smitino;  Horeb  once  with  our  rod  in  search 
of  water.  The  self-control  would  lie  in  not  doing 
it.  But  to  keep  smiting  the  flint  and  appealing  to 
heaven  with  unflagging  diligence  till  success  may  be 
{•leased  to  come,  however  long  it  may  tarry  —  this 
is  really  putting  the  bit  into  the  wild  horse's  mouth, 
and  breaking  him  to  systematic  and  useful  service. 
The  world   says  to  the  new  seeker,  Give  up  your 


134  PATIENT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

search  ;  it  is  burdensome,  and  after  all  will  come  to 
nothing.  Invisible  tempters  say  to  him  at  both 
ears,  Give  it  up  ;  it  is  burdensome,  and  after  all  will 
come  to  nothing.  His  own  indolent  and  perverted 
and  easily  discouraged  heart  is  ever  crying  out  to 
him  from  within,  Yes,  give  it  up  ;  why  will  you  have 
this  long  disquiet  and  all  to  no  purpose  ?  And  now, 
if  through  all  he  holds  on  his  patient  way  of  the 
double-handed  seeking,  praying  with  his  right  hand 
and  working  Nature  with  his  left,  he  is  a  self-con- 
queror, a  self-conqueror  in  a  sacred  direction.  He 
is  not  only  practicing  victory,  but  practicing  it  to- 
ward the  right  point  of  the  compass.  He  is  learn- 
ing how  holy  fields  are  w^on.  He  is  learning  how 
to  triumph  at  Ascalons,  and  scale  the  walls  of  Jeru- 
salems.  And  every  day's  contest  enables  him  to 
hold  his  will  toward  high  and  sacred  ideas  with  a 
firmer  rein  and  a  steadier  step. 

Of  all  prayer,  that  dictated  by  some  specific  and 
great  want  takes  us  nearest  to  the  idea  of  God.  It 
is  the  o!ily  sort  of  prayer  which  gives  us  what  we 
may  call  contact  with  that  supreme  idea.  So  the 
difference  between  one  prayer  and  patient  prayer 
for  the  great  boon  of  light  on  the  fundamentals  of 
religion  —  and  where  in  all  the  round  of  the  pos- 
sible is  there  a  greater,  save  virtue  itself —  is  the 
difference  between  a  transient  and  a  lasting  con- 
tact with  the  most  reforming  and  exalting  of  all 
human  conceptions.  To  see  God  as  He  is,  would 
be,  in  tendency,  to  be  changed  into  the  same  image. 


THE  METHOD  JUSTIFIED.  135 

To  come  into  His  immediate  spliere  and  presence 
would  be  to  be  penetrated  by  a  thousand  sweet  and 
exalting  influences,  overflowing  from  Him  in  all  di- 
rections, as  do  perfumes  from  a  garden  full  of  all 
sweetest  flowers  and  spices.  And  to  touch  the  very 
hem  of  His  robe  —  awful  and  yet  blessed  priv- 
ilege—  would  be  to  receive  mightiest  healing  virtue 
against  sin  ;  and  the  oftener  we  could  touch  the 
more  we  should  receive.  Patient  prayer  really  takes 
up  abode  in  the  audience  chamber,  say  of  this 
Great  Idea  —  an  audience  chamber  full  to  overflow- 
ing with  grace  and  light,  a  very  tropical  land  to 
bring  rapidly  forward  all  rich  and  graceful  plants  of 
goodness.  The  mere  transient  seeker  comes  and 
goes,  gains  and  loses,  and  has  only  the  privileges  of 
a  sojourner  where  his  brother  dwells  as  a  citizen. 
Every  time  we  wakefully  press  our  petition  as  be- 
fore God,  we  earnestly  take  for  granted  His  possible 
being  and  government  ;  and  our  long  seeking  is 
really  one  long  exercise  of  this  potential  assumption. 
How  potential  it  is  !  What  great  and  practical 
implications  it  has !  What  restraints  from  the 
wrong  does  it  impose  !  What  stimulus  toward  the 
right  does  it  give  !  It  plainly  requires  of  us  very 
much  the  same  sort  of  conduct  as  would  complete 
demonstration  of  the  Divine  existence  ;  a  sense  of 
which  is  worth  more  than  all  other  means  put  to- 
gether for  improving  character.  Whoever  goes  ear- 
nestly to  God  as  possible,  only  once,  does  by  that 
single  going  quicken  his  sense  of  the  Mighty  Possi- 


136  PATIENT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

bility  ;  but  he  who  goes  a  hundred  times  in  patient 
system  gives  tlie  principle  the  benefit  of  a  hundred 
impulses  and  of  a  systematic  cultivation.  On  ac- 
count of  these  incidental  disciplines  and  cultures 
involved  in  a  patient  seeking,  it  may  be,  God  would 
be  warranted  in  often  making  it  the  condition  of  our 
findiuff.  Do  not  be  stumbled  if  it  is  made  the  con- 
dition  of  your  finding  that  blessing  of  blessings  — 
light  on  the  fundamental  questions  of  religion. 

You  also  see,  almost  at  once,  that  a  blessing  may 
often  do  more  good  hy  coming  after  some  delay  than 
hy  coming  immediately  ;  and  that  meanwhile  to  keep 
up  our  desire  and  preparation  for  the  blessing  it 
may  be  necessary  to  keep  up  the  seeking.  There 
is  a  great  choice  often  as  to  the  time  of  bestowing  a 
given  alms  on  a  poor  man.  Circumstances  may 
make  it  much  more  for  his  advantage  to  receive  the 
sum  to-morrow  than  to-day.  The  physicians  know 
many  a  sick  man  who  had  far  better  receive  strength 
to  walk  abroad  a  week  hence  than  now.  The 
parent  often  delays  a  year  giving  his  child  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  certain  school,  and  feels  sure  that  the 
delay  will  be  all  for  the  child's  advantage.  Many  a 
scholar  has  felt  that  the  university  would  have  been 
of  double  the  advantage  to  him  that  it  has,  had  he 
entered  it  a  year  later.  Now  there  may  be  the 
same  choice  of  times  for  advantageously  receiving 
many  religious  blessings  —  a  choice  depending  more 
on  our  circumstances  than  on  our  characters.  Such 
mav  be  our  circumstances  that  we  had 'better  receive 


THE  METHOD  JUSTIFIED.  137 

even  a  spiritual  blessing  a  month  hence  than  now. 
For  example,  you  wish  clear  light  on  certain  grav- 
est religious  questions  —  say  that  mighty  trinity  of 
them  looking  toward  God,  His  Son,  and  His  Word. 
The  clear  light  you  wish  may  do  you  more  good 
by  coming  after  some  delay  than  by  coming  on  the 
instant.  How  do  you  know  but  that  your  case  is 
altogether  like  that  of  the  young  man  whom  it  is 
best  to  keep  away  from  the  university  a  year  longer  ? 
That  delayed  privilege  will  prove  a  greater  blessing 
to  him  than  if  he  were  having  it  to-day.  Not  that 
knowledge  is  not  good ;  not  that  the  proposed  edu- 
cation is  not  of  tlie  host ;  not  that,  if  now  possessed, 
that  echication  would  not  do  most  admirable  service  ; 
not  that  if  things  were  exactly  as  they  should  be,  it 
would  not  be  better  to  have  that  education  now 
than  at  some  future  time  ;  but  that,  as  things  are,  a 
greater  profit  will  come  from  it  when  circumstances 
and  character  have  been  allowed  to  ripen  somewhat. 
Who  can  say  that  this  is  not  exactly  the  case  of 
you  doubters,  seeking  the  removal  of  your  doubts? 
It  is  really  an  education  that  you  are  Seeking  —  the 
very  highest.  And  think  it  not  strange  to  hear 
that  there  may  be  a  choice  of  times  for  graduating 
this  education  at  the  greatest,  though  least  visible, 
of  universities. 

A  teacher  is  asked  for  the  answer  to  a  certain 
problem.  He  can  give  it  at  once.  In  exceptional 
cases  he  will  do  so.  But  in  most  cases  he  thinks  it 
not  best.     He-  gives  the  child  a  grain  of  light,  and 


138  PATIENT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

sends  him  back  with  it  to  his  desk  to  pore  over  the 
problem.  From  time  to  time  he  gives  additional 
light-grains,  as  they  are  applied  for  and  as  the  solu- 
tion advances  ;  until,  at  last,  after  many  applications 
and  many  helpings,  mingled  with  constant  effort  of 
his  own,  the  child  sees  his  way  clear  to  the  answer. 
Do  we  blame  the  teacher  because,  as  a  rule,  he 
chooses  to  give  the  answer  in  this  way  of  patient 
seeking  ?  We  commend  him.  We  know  the  child 
prizes  the  knowledge  all  the  more  ;  it  is  more  truly 
and  familiarly  his  own  ;  and  in  gaining  it  he  has 
gained  a  most  valuable  discipline  and  culture. 

A  college  is  asked  for  its  crowninoj  instructions 
and  honors.  It  can  give  them  at  once,  and  will  do 
so  in  special  cases  for  cause  shown.  But  its  plan 
for  most  is  to  bring  them  forward  by  a  graduated 
course  in  which  the  college  shall  spread  out  its 
helps,  and  the  student  his  applications  and  studies, 
over  years.  For  years  he  must  renew  his  applica- 
tion for  instruction  daily  at  a  recitation  room,  where 
he  w^ill  work  and  where  the  teachers  will  assist.  So 
he  will  gradually  mount  by  a  succession  of  applica- 
tions and  helps  and  studies  to  the  highest  degrees 
and  privileges  of  the  college.  Is  the  college  blamed, 
for  having  such  a  plan  ?  By  no  means.  In  this 
way,  say  w^e,  the  seniorities  and  diplomas  of  the  in- 
stitution will  commonly  best  come,  will  be  the 
most  prized,  will  do  the  student  most  good  and 
the  public  most  service.  The  gradual  discipline  and 
culture  of  that  long  procession  of  mingled  applica- 


THE  METHOD  JUSTIFIED.  139 

tions  and  aids  and  studies  will  be  invaluable  to  him. 
It  is  his  education. 

A  man  wants  the  higher  posts  and  honors  of  the 
State.  The  State  can  grant  them  at  once  —  does 
so  in  cases  of  extraordinary  merit  or  public  crisis. 
But  its  rule  is,  Present  yourself  daily  at  this  pol- 
ytechnic school  for  aid,  apply  yourself  faithfully 
to  such  tasks  as  may  there  be  given,  and  take  pro- 
motion step  by  step  according  to  the  zeal  and  faith- 
fulness you  show.  Then  do  the  same  at  this  bureau 
or  in  that  camp.  So  by  degrees  the  striving  scholar, 
in  this  way  of  daily  application  and  daily  help  and 
daily  labor,  mounts  through  cadetships  and  captain- 
cies of  many  grades  to  the  baton  of  a  marshal  or  the 
portfolio  of  a  priv^y  counselor.  This  prize  was  in 
his  thought  from  the  first.  From  the  first  it  was  a 
])rize  which  the  empire  was  willing  he  should  have, 
if  worthy.  But  he  must  have  it  in  this  way  of 
patient  seeking.  Is  the  empire  blamed?  Not  at 
all.  Only  praise  is  heard.  It  is  felt  that  this  is  the 
natural  way  of  bringing  forward  men  to  great  posts. 
By  it  the  training  keeps  pace  with  the  acquisition. 
The  individual  is  better  improved  while  the  country 
is  better  served.  The  final  success  is  all  the  more 
highly  prized  and  effectively  used  on  account  of  its 
tardy  coming.  And  the  nation  and  the  press  break 
forth  into  eulogy  over  the  liberal  views  and  wise 
prevision  and  large-thoughted  policy  that  established 
such  a  method.  The  youth  are  glad  at  their  splen- 
did opportunities  and  magnanimous  emperor.    What 


140  PATIENT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

could  they  reasonably  ask  more  ?  Here  are  the 
run^s  of  the  ladder  offered  to  every  foot,  and  there 
shall  be  a  patient  helping  for  every  step  of  the  pa- 
tient climbing.  They  are  more  than  satisfied.  And 
then  it  is  possible  that  any  given  aspirant  may, 
through  some  special  grace  of  events,  suddenly  rise 
by  one  grand  uplift  from  the  bottom  to  the  topmost 
round  of  honor.  Has  no  humble  page  been  unex- 
pectedly knighted  on  the  field  of  battle  ?  Has  no 
Joseph,  fresh  from  prison,  gone  forth  viceroy  of 
Egypt?  Has  no  Daniel,  just  out  of  mortal  peril, 
been  made  president  of  princes  and  ruler  over  the 
whole  province  of  Babylon  ?  I  salute  thee,  Dupuy, 
—  this  morning  plodding  in  the  ranks,  and  still  in 
the  uniform  of  a  common  soldier  all  red  and  sodden 
with  battle —  I  salute  thee  marshal  of  France ! 
Who  knows  but  such  a  bright  exceptional  case  may 
be  yours,  O  young  aspirant  for  glory  ?  But  if  not, 
if  you  are  shut  up  to  the  current  method  of  ad- 
vancement by  patient  seeking,  you  have  only 
thankful  words  to  say.  The  emperor  is  most  wise 
and  kind.  It  is  an  equal,  far  sighted,  and  generous 
policy.  Do  we  not  begin  to  succeed  at  once,  and 
go  on  succeeding  in  proportion  as  we  do  justice  to 
our  opportunities  ?  What  more  utterly  reasonable  ? 
So  ambitious  parents  feel,  so  feels  all  France,  and 
so  the  whole  fair-minded  world.  Why,  here  is 
England  to-day  soliciting  praise  and  getting  it,  for 
doing  far  less  —  for  having  at  last  concluded  to  grant 
her  posts  of  honor,  without  respect  of  persons,  on  a 


THE  METHOD   URGED.  141 

plan  of  ])atient  seeking  without  tlie  patient  helping. 
And  we  begin  to  liear  amono;  ourselves  the  first  out- 
cries  for  a  similar  system.  Could  we  learn  to-day 
that  sucli  a  system  has  been  fairly  adopted,  and  that 
henceforth  no  public  post  will  go  by  mere  patron- 
age and  party  policy  and  demagogism,  but  by 
courses  of  application  and  labor  in  the  direction  of 
preparation  for  those  posts,  we  should  feel  that  a 
new  day  has  dawned  on  the  land.  The  golden 
age  of  politics  has  arrived.  All  sensible  friends  of 
the  country  approve.  All  worthy  aspirants  to  pub- 
lic honors  more  than  approve.  And  yet  the  State 
provides  no  instruction,  but  leaves  everyone  to  help 
himself  to  qualifications  as  he  best  may.  What  if 
it  should  step  in  with  a  long  succession  of  positive 
aids  to  match  and  reward  your  long  succession  of 
honest  endeavors  ! 

So,  men  of  dim  views  in  religion,  do  not  com- 
plain of  the  Scripture  way  of  turning  your  twilight 
into  full  day.  This  way  is  as  old  as  mankind.  It 
is  befriended  by  ages  of  experience.  It  has  its  roots 
in  a  profound  knowledge  of  human  nature.  It  is 
the  King's  Own  of  judicious  teachers,  of  the  higher 
education,  and  of  the  most  advanced  government. 
It  is  the'Jeaw  ideal  of  these  times  in  matters  secular. 
Try  it  in  matters  religious.  Here  you  are,  with 
little  or  no  faith  in  God,  in  Jesus,  in  the  Bible  ; 
and  that  Bible  comes  to  you  proposing  to  give  any 
amount  of  light  in  the  way  of  patient  praying  and 
inquiring.      It  guarantees    success.      The    plan    is 


142  PA  TIE  XT  DIRECT  SEEKING. 

utterly  reasonable.  It  stands  strong  in  tlie  theory 
and  business  and  liistory  of  the  world.  It  is  com- 
mercially sound.  What  if  you  have  to  persevere  a 
little  or  much  at  your  labor  on  so  great  a  matter? 
The  result  will  more  than  pay  for  the  outlay,  what- 
ever that  may  be.  But  you  are  not  to  wait  long 
for  some  light.  You  may  not  have  to  wait  at  all  for 
even  meridian  splendors ;  but  the  glory  may  come 
to  you  in  sudden  outburst,  as  highest  honor  some- 
times comes  to  lowly  soldier  or  civilian.  At  the 
very  least,  your  case  is  to  begin  im})roving  from  the 
time  you  begin  the  double-handed  seeking.  And 
you  are  to  reach  a  true  faith  in  all  fundamental 
things  just  as  soon  as  you  become  truly  virtuous 
persons.  It  is  only  the  sublimer  measures  of  faith 
—  the  assurance,  the  mountain  standing  strong,  the 
foundations  of  the  everlasting  hills  —  that  may  call 
for  the  long  courses  of  seeking.  But  then  these 
sublimer  measures  are  so  precious  that  no  price  is  too 
great  to  be  paid  for  them.  Pay  all  the  patient  seek- 
ing that  may  be  necessary.  Pay  months  and  years 
if  need  be.  Chronic  doubts  may  require  chronic 
relieving.  But  of  this  be  assured  —  you  will  not 
have  to  go  far  toward  the  east  before  meeting  at 
least  the  dawn.  Ascend  to  the  hill-top  and  I  ven- 
ture to  believe  that  you  can  see  the  morning  even 
now.  And  Oh,  what  a  beautiful  morning  it  is  !  So 
richly  toned,  so  variously  and  exquisitely  painted, 
so  pregnant  with  the  glory  of  the  coming  sun  I 
What  encouragement    to  go   forward,  every    step 


WELL?  143 

treading  in  new  brightness,  every  uplift  of  the  face 
detecting  a  new  whiteness  on  the  landscape  !  What 
prophetic  eloquence,  and  almost  song,  in  those  mag- 
ical and  now  fast-shifting  colors !  See,  the  sun  ap- 
pears !  And  a  long  time  before  that  sun  shall  stand 
directly  over  your  heads,  and  flood  with  light  every 
nook  and  corner  of  your  landscape,  it  will  be  plain 
to  you  that  everything  is  moving  surely  on  to  mid- 
day. How  steadily  the  morning  grows  !  How 
steadil}^  the  great  orb  ascends !  The  laws  of 
Nature  are  evidently  drawing  at  that  radiant  car. 
Evidently  they  are  drawing  along  the  arc  that  goes 
straightest  to  the  zenith.  They  will  surely  arrive. 
And  then,  amid  the  glorious  noon  of  faith,  you  shall 
shine  and  rejoice  and  say  with  the  supreme  satisfac- 
tion which  many  have  felt  before  you,  and  are  feel- 
ing to-day,  all  over  the  world.  We  speak  that  we 
do  know  and  testify  that  we  have  seen. 

May  I  not  hope  that  you  are  ready  for  the 
patient  direct  seeking ;  and  that,  with  cordial 
prayer  for  light  keeping  pace  with  every  step  of  the 
intellectual  effort,  you  will  now  join  me  in  cordially 
examining  a  few  of  the  many  Evidences  of  the 
Biblical  Religion  ? 


IX. 

PRESUMPTIONS. 


IX.     Presumptions. 

1.  FIRST   ASPECT 147 

2.  AVOWED   PURPOSE 15° 

3.  PROPOSED   MEANS ^S^ 

4.  PRECEPTS 151 

5.  FACTS   AND   DOCTRINES 153 

6.  LITERATURE 160 

7.  ADAPTATIONS 162 

8.  EFFECTS 168 

9.  FRIENDS  .  . 174 

10.  FAITH   AND   VIRTUE 175 

11.  OTHER   RELIGIONS 177 

12.  ALTERNATIVE 179 


PRESUMPTIONS. 

TTUME  confessed  that  he  had  never  read  the 
■^■^     Bible  with  attention. 

An  eminent  statesman  and  historian  uses  the  fol- 
lowing language.  "  The  Christian  Faith  has  been, 
and  is  still,  very  fiercely  and  obstinately  attacked. 
How  many  efforts  have  been,  and  are  still,  made  ; 
how  many  books,  serious  or  frivolous,  able  or  silly, 
have  been,  and  are,  spread  incessantly  in  order  to 
destroy  it  in  men's  minds  !  Where  has  this  re- 
doubtable struggle  been  supported  with  the  greatest 
energy  and  success,  and  where  has  the  Christian 
Faith  been  best  defended  ?  There  where  the  read- 
ing of  the  Sacred  Books  is  a  general  and  assiduous 
part  of  public  worship ;  there  where  it  takes  place 
in  the  interior  of  families,  and  in  solitary  meditation. 
It  is  the  Bible,  the  Bible  itself,  which  combats  and 
triumphs  most  efficaciously  in  the  war  between  in- 
credulity and  belief." 

These  words  of  M.  Guizot  are  true.  The  Bib- 
lical Religion  is  the  strongest  among  those  who  are 
best  acquainted  with  it.  Accordingly,  I  think  it 
will  greatly  help  you  to  judge  of  the  claims  of  this 
Religion  if  you  w^ill  join  me  in  a  rapid  survey  of 
some  of  its  leading  features. 


148  PRESUMPTIONS. 

1.  The  Biblical  Religion  is  one. 

The  same  God,  the  same  way  of  living,  tlie  same 
fundamental  doctrines  in  all  directions,  are  taught, 
though  with  different  degrees  of  clearness,  in  all 
parts  of  the  Bible.  It  is  true  it  has  different  writers. 
It  is  true  it  has  an  Old  Testament  and  a  New,  a 
Mosaic  Economy  and  a  Christian.  But  really  these 
are  the  same  thing  in  different  stages  of  develop- 
ment. The  one  is  the  dawn,  the  other  is  the  noon. 
The  one  is  the  child,  the  other  is  the  man.  The 
one  is  the  sapling,  the  other  is  the  ripe  cedar  of  Leb- 
anon out  of  which  temples  are  made.  This  is  the 
Christian  account  of  the  matter;  and  every  toler- 
able reader  of  the  Bible  knows  it  to  be  just.  There 
is  no  more  appearance  of  conflict  between  its  differ- 
ent books  than  there  is  between  the  different  chap- 
ters of  the  same  book.  Besides,  the  New  Testa- 
ment vouches  for  all  the  Old.  So  that  one  cannot 
be  an  intelligent  believer  in  Christ  without  being 
also  a  believer  in  the  earlier  records  which  He  in- 
dorses. Whatever  is  said  in  favor  of  Christianity 
is  really  so  much  said  in  favor  of  the  whole  Biblical 
Religion  which  Christianity  professes  to  fulfill.  Tlie 
two  are  practically  one. 

2.  The  one  Biblical  Religion  is  truihlike  in  its  first 
aspect. 

As  soon  as  you  come  into  the  presence  of  some 
men,  and  look  in  their  faces,  and  hear  them  speak, 
y.ou  feel  drawn  to  them.  By  a  subtle  understand- 
ing which  you  can  hardly  explain,  but  which  is  very 


FIRST  ASPECT.  149 

satisfying,  you  are  convinced  that  they  are  strong 
and  hiah  and  good.  You  need  no  laborious  trial 
of  them.  Their  very  way  of  carrying  themselves 
flashes  to  you  a  sudden  sense  of  their  worth.  Well, 
some  of  us  know  something  of  this  feehng  wlien  we 
come  into  the  presence  of  the  Bible.  It  is  so  truth- 
like.  It  does  not  look  and  speak  like  an  impostor. 
Its  face  is  so  frank,  its  eye  so  genuine,  its  whole 
carriage  so  ingenuous  and  sound-hearted.  How 
simple,  direct,  and  circumstantial  are  its  narra- 
tives !  How  full  of  coincidences  which  could  not 
have  been  designed  —  near  a  hundred  between  the 
epistles  and  history  of  Paul  alone — and  yet  how 
careless  of  merely  verbal  and  formal  inconsistencies 
which  only  try  the  fairness  of  an  interpreter  !  How 
misparingly  they  tell  the  weaknesses,  sins,  and  mis- 
fortunes of  favorite  characters,  best  friends,  and 
own  countrymen;  and  who  but  honest  Jews,  to 
whom  truth  was  a  sacred  thing,  would  ever  have 
told  such  a  story  as  we  have  in  the  Bible  of  the 
checkered  misbehavior  and  chastisements  of  the 
Jewish  peoi)le,  of  the  patriarchs,  of  Moses  and 
David  and  Solomon  and  Peter!  How^  faithful  is 
the  Book  to  the  great  and  popular  crimes  bf  its  own 
times  and  of  all  times  —  sparing  neither  numbers, 
nor  riches,  nor  power,  nor  rank,  nor  antiquity,  nor 
friendship  !  How  clearly  it  sees  that  the  heart  is 
the  fountain  of  corruption  ;  and  so,  most  unpoi)ular- 
ly  and  unprecedentedly,  directs  the  brunt  of  its  ef- 
fort toward  inward  reform  —  insistincj  on  a  renewal 


150  PRESUMPTIONS. 

of  the  heart  as  being  the  first  step  in  personal  reh'g- 
ion  !  How  completely  are  all  castes  and  classes, 
save  those  based  on  moral  differences,  ignored  bv  it 
—  so  that  beggars  and  kings,  sages  and  simple,  pub- 
licans and  priests,  are  treated  with  equal  favor,  and 
appear  before  it  on  one  inexorable  level  as  to  the 
exactions  it  makes,  the  rewards  it  offers,  and  the 
penalties  it  denounces!  And  then  see  with  what 
a  cordial  air  it  invites  examination  into  its  claims  — 
saying  in  many  ways,  Prove  all  things.  Seek  for 
wisdom  as  for  silver,  O  noble  Bereans  searching 
daily  whether  these  things  are  so !  See  with  what 
easy  confidence  it  gives  crucial  tests  of  itself  in  its 
promises;  especially  in  its  promise  of  faith  to  all  per- 
sons conscientiously  living,  sincerely  praying,  and 
patiently  inquiring  ;  or,  if  you  will  have  it  at  the 
shortest,  to  all  persons  who  will  intelligently  under- 
take a  thorough  reform  of  heart  and  life.  Then 
light  shall  begin  to  stream  in.  Then  the  soul  shall 
begin  consciously  to  move  toward  the  mouth  of  its 
cavern.  And,  if  the  process  which  begins  to  give 
light  is  continued,  it  shall  at  last  bring  the  lost  one 
out  into  clear  day.  Such  is  the  engagement.  Who 
cannot  test  it  ?  The  Bible  frankly  commits  itself  to 
stand  or  fall  by  this  plan  of  inquiry.  Does  not  all 
this  look  straightforward,  honest,  consciously  truth- 
ful? 

3.  The  Biblical  Religion  is  noble  in  its  avowed 
purpose. 

It  declares  man  an  undone  beincr  in  character  and 


PURPOSE  — MEANS  — PRECEPTS.  151 

prospects  ;  and  declares  it  to  be  its  mission  to  rescue 
him,  without  respect  of  persons  and  over  all  the 
earth,  to  pardon  and  virtue  and  eternal  life.  "  I 
came  to  save  the  world,"  said  Jesus.  '•'•  The  Son 
of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  save  that  which  was 
lost,"  said  Jesus.  You  see  that  the  Religion  is 
not  wanting  in  dignity  of  professed  object.  That 
object,  as  related  to  man,  could  not  be  loftier. 
There  is  nothing  worse  tlian  sin  to  be  saved  from, 
nothing  better  than  eternal  life  to  be  saved  to. 

4.  The  Biblical  Religion  is  suitable  in  its  proposed 
means. 

It  proposes  to  do  its  great  work  of  saving  men  by 
means  of  a  written  revelation  whose  matter  and 
form  are  both  inspired  by  Divinity,  by  means  of  a 
vast  body  of  miracles  in  which  Divinity  Himself 
powerfully  attests  His  Word  to  the  senses  of  men, 
by  means  of  an  atonement  in  which  Divinity  Him- 
self dies  for  human  sin,  by  means  of  a  Holy  Spirit 
in  whom  Divinity  Himself  steps  forth  to  renew  and 
sanctify  sinful  human  hearts.  Certainly  a  great 
system  of  instrumentalities !  Could  a  greater  be 
imagined,  even  ?  It  is  altogether  in  keeping  with 
the  greatness  of  the  object  which  the  Biblical  Re- 
ligion proposes  for  itself. 

5.  The  Biblical  Religion  is  holy  in  its  practical 
teachirigs. 

Of  course  there  are  particular  precepts  to  which 
unbelievers  sometimes  take  exception  ;  but  I  am 
now  speaking  of  the  bearing  of  the  Scriptural  pre- 


152  PRESUMPTIONS. 

cepts  as  a  whole.  In  regard  to  this  tliere  is  no 
question.  Its  holy  character  is  admitted  by  even 
the  worst  enemies  of  the  Bible.  Of  course  you 
freely  admit  it.  You  know  that  were  the  biddings 
of  this  Book  fully  reduced  to  practice  by  any  persou, 
it  would  improve  him  beyond  measure.  You  know 
that  were  any  community  to  obey  them  perfectly, 
that  community  would  be  almost  as  fragrant  and 
beautiful  as  a  Paradise.  Prisons  would  be  empty. 
Courts  would  have  nothincr  to  do.  Crime  and  the 
very  seeds  of  crime  would  perish.  Selfishness  and 
all  bosom  -  wickedness  would  disappear.  Society 
would  be  washed  clean  as  by  the  turning  through 
it  of  a  river.  And  instead  of  foulness,  outward  and 
inward,  would  be  the  dainty  whiteness  of  every 
positive  excellence.  Where  is  the  virtue  that  is 
not  enjoined  somewhere  in  the  Bible  ?  I  have 
never  heard  of  it.  Where  is  the  amiable  trait  that 
ever  drew  love,  or  sweetened  the  air  of  home,  or 
softened  the  ways  of  general  society;  where  the 
epic  goodness  that  saves  states,  illustrates  centuries, 
and  does  honor  to  human  nature,  that  is  not  bidden 
in  some  form  within  its  comprehensive  decalogues  ? 
I  have  never  heard  of  it.  Of  course  I  cannot  go 
into  details.  Nor  is  it  necessary.  I  appeal  to  your 
knowledge  of  a  Book  with  which  you  have  been 
familiar  from  your  infancy ;  and  confidently  chal- 
lenge you  to  point  finger  at  a  single  vice  or  fault 
which  the  Bible  has  forgotten  to  forbid,  or  at  a 
single  virtue  or  amiability  which  it  has  forgotten  to 


FACTS  AND  DOCTRINES.  153 

enjoin.  It  cannot  be  done.  The  spirit  and  drift 
of  the  Scripture  law  are  holy  in  the  last  degree. 
Tiie  way  of  living  it  requires  would  picture  with 
mingled  beauty  and  sublimity  the  face  of  the  world. 
The  Christian  code  is  the  most  promising  landscape- 
gardener  that  has  yet  offered  service  to  the  public. 
Even  unbelieving  Bolingbroke  confesses  it.  "  No 
religion,"  says  he,  '*  ever  appeared  in  the  world 
whose  natural  tendency  was  so  much  directed  to 
promote  the  peace  and  happiness  of  mankind.  It 
makes  right  reason  a  law  in  every  possible  defini- 
tion of  the  word.  And  therefore,  even  supposing 
it  to  be  a  purely  human  invention,  it  had  been  the 
most  amiable  and  the  most  useful  invention  that 
was  ever  imposed  on  mankind  for  their  good." 

6.  The  Biblical  Religion^  as  to  its  doctrines  and 
facts,  is  in  striking  accord  with  Nature  and  Histor- 
ical Antiquities. 

During  recent  years  much  research  has  been 
made  in  Bible  lands.  Ancient  languag-es  have  been 
compared,  ancient  manuscripts  discovered,  ancient 
ruins  unearthed,  ancient  inscriptions  read.  And, 
altogether,  much  independent  light  has  been  cast 
on  places,  customs,  and  events  referred  to  in  the 
Bible.  With  what  result  ?  At  first,  some  trium- 
phant outcries  against  the  Book,  especially  against 
its  supposed  chronology.  Next,  an  incurable  dis- 
cord among  the  outcriers.  Then,  as  search  and  dis- 
cussion proceeded,  trait  after  trait  of  verisimilitude 
brightening  out  from  the  venerable  pages,  as  some 


154  PRESUMPTIONS. 

old  Roman  buckler  of  Corinthian  brass,  dug  up  on 
British  moor,  thickly  embossed  by  artist  and  darkly 
bronzed  by  time,  gradually  becomes  studded  with 
bright  points  under  the  patient  frictions  of  the  anti- 
quary. At  last,  thousands  of  agreements  estab- 
lished between  the  Record  and  the  Antiquities,  and 
not  one  disagreement  on  which  learned  opposers  of 
the  Bible  can  unite.  Such  has  been  the  history. 
No  thorough  scholar  in  these  matters  will  venture  to 
deny  it.  One  of  the  most  eminent  of  such  scholars, 
after  a  careful  survey  of  all  the  researches,  says  with 
representative  voice,  "  Tlie  monumental  records  of 
past  ages  —  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  Egyptian,  Per- 
sian, Phoenician  —  the  writings  of  historians  who 
have  based  their  histories  on  contemporary  annals, 
as  Manetho,  Berosus,  Dius,  Menander,  Nicolas  of 
Damascus ;  the  descriptions  given  by  eye-witnesses 
of  the  Oriental  manners  and  customs ;  the  proofs  ob- 
tained by  modern  research  of  the  condition  of  art  in 
the  time  and  country  —  all  combine  to  confirm,  illus- 
trate, and  establish  the  veracity  of  the  writers  who 
have  delivered  to  us  the  history  of  the  chosen  peo- 
ple." Even  unbelieving  Renan  feels  it  necessary  to 
confess,  "  The  striking  accord  between  the  texts  and 
the  places,  the  marvelous  harmony  of  the  Bible 
ideas  with  the  country  which  serves  them  for  a 
frame,  was  to  me  like  a  revelation."  Strong  as  is 
such  testimony  it  is  not  too  strong.  Nor  Egypt, 
nor  Phoenicia,  nor  Judaea,  nor  the  plains  of  Shinar ; 
nor  Young,  nor  Hamilton,  nor  Lewis,  nor  Layard, 


FACTS  AND  DOCTRINES.  155 

nor  Rawlinson,  nor  Champollion,  nor  Botta,  nor 
Lepsius,  nor  Bunsen  —  nor  private  explorers  with 
their  freedom  and  numbers,  nor  public  commissions 
going  forth  with  public  resources  at  command  — ■ 
none  nor  all  of  these  have  furnished  a  single  well 
established  fact  against  the  Bible  history-  On  the 
contrary  they  have  furnished  immense  corroboration. 
Startling  corroboration  in  many  instances.  For  ex- 
ample, a  comparison  of  the  leading  languages  of  the 
world  points  to  a  common  origin  of  mankind,  and 
that  in  the  part  of  Asia  where  the  Bible  places  it. 
Scarcely  a  great  fact  which  the  Book  affirms  of  the 
race  —  such  as  the  original  paradise,  the  sabbath, 
the  fall,  the  worship  by  sacrifices,  the  flood  —  which 
is  not  echoed  all  round  the  world  in  immemorial 
traditions.  The  tombs  of  Egypt,  the  giant  cities  of 
Bashan,  the  Moabite  stone,  great  Nineveh  again 
broufiiht  to  the  surface  after  a  burial  of  near  three 
thousand  years,  say  Aye  to  the  Scripture  Record 
with  voice  still  more  imposing.  But  all  the  intelli- 
gible monuments  and  antiquities  say  it,  so  far  as 
they  speak  toward  the  Bible  at  all.  Would  you  say 
it  for  yourselves  ?  Read  Thomson's  ''  The  Land 
and  the  Book."  Read  Hengstenberg's  "  Egypt  and 
the  Books  of  Moses."  Read  Rawlinson's  "  Histor- 
ical Evidences." 

So  much  for  Scripture  as  harmonizing  with  His- 
torical Antiquities.  It  also  harmonizes  quite  as 
well  with  the  observed  constitution  and  course  of 
Nature. 


156  PRESUMPTIONS. 

On  the  one  hand  we  have  the  Book  coming  to  us 
through  different  channels  and  at  different  times ; 
on  the  other  hand  we  see  all  our  arts  and  sciences 
and  civilizations  coming  to  us  in  the  same  detached 
way.     On  the  one  hand  we  have  the  Book  becom- 
ing more  clear  and  high  in  its  forms  of  truth  as  it 
advances ;  on  the  other  hand  we  find   the  order  of 
Nature  with  its  gradually  advancing  day,  and  grad- 
ually advancing  man    whose   narrow  notions  as  a 
child  pass  by  degrees  into  the  broad  knowledge  of 
mature  life.    On  the  one  hand  is  the  Book,  obscure 
in  parts  and  sometimes  for  the  present  impossible 
to  be  understood  ;  on  the  other  hand  is  the  mysteri- 
ous universe  of  matter  and  mind  over  whose  para- 
bles we  are  obliged  to  ponder  long  and  often  ponder 
in  vain.     On  the  one   hand   is  the   Book,  largely 
capable    of  different  interpretations   and   evidently 
largely  needing  care  and  honesty  to  draw  out  its 
true  sense  ;  on  the  other  hand  is  the  book  of  Na- 
ture with  its  seeming   self-contradictions ;  with   its 
variously  interpreted  laws  of  health,  laws  of  hus- 
bandry, laws  of  political   economy ;  even   with  its 
variously  interpreted  laws  of  the  most  famous  nat- 
ural sciences,  especially  in  the  earlier  stages  of  such 
sciences.     On  the  one  hand  is  the  Book  in  regard 
to  whose    sense    sad    mistakes    have  actually  been 
made ;  on  the  other  hand  is  the  book  of  Kature  en- 
cumbered worse  than  any  attic  with  the  rubbish  of 
exploded  scientific  theories,  or  of  theories  that  ought 
to  be  exploded  —  astronomical,  geological,  mathe- 


FACTS  AND  DOCTRINES.  157 

matical  even.  On  the  one  hand  we  liave  the  Book 
giving  us  what  in  certain  places  and  at  certain  times 
ought  not  to  be  read  ;  on  the  other  hand  we  have 
the  book  of  Nature  giving  us  what  in  certain  places 
and  at  certain  times  ouglit  not  to  be  spoken  of.  And 
so  on.  I  am  confident  that,  however  far  you  may 
proceed,  you  will  find  that  no  objection  can  be 
brought  against  the  general  aspects  and  implications 
of  the  Bible  which  does  not  lie  equally  against  the 
known  scheme  of  Nature.  Still  more  confident,  if 
possible,  am  I  that  you  will  find  no  objections  greater 
than  many  which  can  be  started  against  the  exist- 
ence of  actual  things. 

Or  look  at  the  direct  teaching  of  the  Bible.  We 
find  it  teaching  the  boundless  wisdom  and  power  of 
an  Author  of  Nature  ;  and,  looking  around,  we  find 
a  universe  which,  in  the  vastness  of  its  extent  and 
in  the  variety  and  wonderfulness  of  its  contents,  ac- 
cords with  such  an  authorship.  We  find  it  teach- 
ing a  Divine  Providence  that  condescends  to  the 
smallest  conceivable  particulars  ;  and,  looking  about 
through  the  microscope,  we  find  a  world  whose 
smallest  details  are  wrought  and  adjusted  with  an 
exquisiteness  as  wonderful  as  the  economy  of  yonder 
solar  system.  We  find  it  teaching  a  God  who  at  the 
same  time  sustains  and  operates  in  all  directions  and 
at  all  distances  from  His  throne  ;  and,  looking  away 
to  the  sky,  we  find  it  occupied  by  spheres  of  whose 
shining  majesty  almost  the  same  things  can  be  said 
—  spheres  which  not  only  act  where  they  are  not, 


158  PRESUMPTIONS. 

but  which  are  able  to  fill  every  point  of  surrounding 
space,  as  far  as  thought  can  travel,  with  unceasing 
power  and  control.  We  find  it  teaching  a  God 
who  has  a  severe,  as  well  as  a  tender,  side  to  His 
character ;  and,  casting  about,  we  find  dislocated 
strata,  destroyed  races,  and  a  current  world  fur- 
rowed with  famines,  pestilences,  and  death.  We 
find  it  teaching  a  certain  order  in  the  appearance 
of  the  various  great  forms  of  life  on  the  globe  ;  and, 
looking  down  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  we  find 
the  stony  records  of  just  such  a  succession.  We 
find  it  teaching  a  profound  depravity  in  all  men, 
and  this  depravity  passing  over  from  parent  to 
child  ;  and,  looking  about  us,  we  find  actual  society 
profoundly  corrupt  throughout,  and  the  physical  and 
mental  and  even  moral  traits  of  children  tending  to 
take  shape  after  the  parental  pattern.  We  find  it 
teaching  a  God  who  in  a  sovereign  way  chooses 
some  individuals  and  nations  to  privileges  and 
honors  not  allowed  to  others  ;  and,  looking  up  and 
down  the  actual  world,  we  find  it  checkered  with 
endless  cases  of  the  same  unexplainable  discrimina- 
tion. We  find  it  teaching  a  Divine  Incarnation  ; 
and,  looking  about  us,  we  find  the  world  filled,  not 
only  with  seeming  traditions  and  anticipations  of  it, 
but  with  actual  incarnated  human  beino-s.  We  find 
it  teaching  the  Atonement  and  Mediatorship  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  and,  looking  around,  we  find  no  end 
to  cases  of  successful  and  righteous  mediation  be- 
tween  contending  parties,  no  end   to  cases  of  sue- 


FACTS  AND  DOCTRINES.  159 

cessfal  and  righteous  self-sacrifice  for  the  good  of 
others.  We  find  it  teaching  the  fall,  the  probation, 
the  regeneration  and  sanctification  by  a  Divine 
power,  the  resurrection,  the  day  of  judgment,  the 
two  after-worlds ;  and,  looking  around,  we  find  the 
world  with  its  visible  ruin,  visible  probations,  visible 
moral  revolutions  and  victories  as  in  answer  to 
prayer,  visible  wonderful  vegetable  and  animal 
transformations,  visible  courts  and  prisons  and  pal- 
aces wherever  wise  governments  are  strongly  main- 
tained. We  find  it  teaching  sorceries  and  demo- 
niacal  possessions ;  and,  looking  about  us,  we  find  at 
least  strong  suggestions  of  such  things  in  many  of 
the  phenomena  of  lunacy  and  spiritualism.  We 
find  it  teaching  us  to  believe  in  miracles  of  great 
number  and  variety  ;  and,  looking  about  us,  we 
find  the  world  stocked  with  wonders  which  no  phi- 
losophy can  fathom,  venerable  with  the  miracles  of 
geology,  and  even  proving  to  us  great  events  in  the 
future  which  will  be  totally  aside  from  all  previous 
human  experience.  And  so  the  analogy  proceeds. 
I  know  of  no  point  of  Scripture-teaching  which  it 
does  not  reach.  From  the  day  when  it  was  dis- 
covered that  the  Bible,  contrary  to  all  other  books 
of  its  time,  hung  the  earth  ''  upon  nothing,"  down 
to  this  day  when  we  find  it  calling  the  Pleiades, 
that  center  of  revolution  to  our  whole  firmament  of 
stars,  by  a  name  which  means  the  pivot,  the  light 
has  been  growing  ;  and  now  the  Bible  with  all  its 
difficulties  is  just  as  credible  a  work  of  God  as  is  the 


160  PRESUMPTIONS. 

difficult  Nature  which  it  so  strikingly  resembles. 
And  as  to  God  Himself,  how  powerfully  does  this 
great  resemblance  between  the  Word  and  the  Deed 
suggest  a  common  Divine  Author ! 

7.  The  Biblical  Religion  is  splendid  in  its  litera- 
ture. 

Of  course  I  do  not  pretend  that  some  men  do  not 
claim  that  the  Bible  is  a  very  childish  sort  of  book 
in  matter  and  manner.  Ignorant  men  sometimes 
say  it.  Men  of  culture  sometimes  say  it,  under  the 
impulse  of  a  recklessly  speaking  dislike.  But  no 
candid,  well-informed  man  will  say  it,  be  he  friend 
or  foe.  You  are  able  to  see  for  yourselves  that 
there  are  many  beautiful  things,  many  sublime 
things,  many  pathetic  things  in  the  Bible ;  that 
somehow  many  of  its  narratives  are  w^onderfully 
fresh  and  effective,  many  of  its  poems  very  sweet 
and  rich,  many  of  its  doctrines  and  persuasions  most 
aptly  and  strongly  put.  Still,  perhaps,  you  distrust 
somewhat  your  own  literary  judgment.  Then  take 
testimony.  So  you  do  on  other  matters.  On  math- 
ematical matters  you  consult  mathematicians  ;  on 
matters  of  commerce,  commercial  men  ;  on  matters 
of  farming,  farmers.  So  do  in  regard  to  the  literary 
merit  of  the  Bible.  Refer  the  question  to  literary 
experts  of  the  first  class.  Consult  the  great  masters 
of  thought  and  expression  —  the  men  who  are  liter- 
ature ;  the  Miltons,  Goethes,  Scotts,  Carlyles ;  the 
men  whose  characters  or  attitudes  toward  religion 
guarantee  their  testimony  to  be  honest  as  well  as 


LITERATURE.  161 

competent.  What  say  such  men  ?  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton says,  We  account  the  Scriptures  to  be  the 
most  subHme  philosophy.  Sir  William  Jones  says, 
I  have  regularly  and  attentively  read  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  am  of  the  opinion  that  this  volume, 
independently  of  its  Divine  origin,  contains  more 
true  sublimity,  more  exquisite  beauty,  more  impor- 
tant history,  and  finer  strains  both  of  poetry  and  elo- 
quence than  could  be  collected  from  all  other  books. 
Milton  says.  There  are  no  songs  comparable  to  the 
songs  of  Zion,  no  orations  equal  to  those  of  the 
prophets,  and  no  politics  like  those  which  the  Scrip- 
tures teach.  Says  Carlyle,  speaking  of  the  book  of 
Job,  "  I  call  that,  apart  from  all  theories  about  it, 
one  of  the  grandest  things  ever  written  by  man.  A 
noble  book  !  All  men's  book  I  Such  living  like- 
nesses were  never  since  drawn.  Sublime  sorrow, 
sublime  reconciliation  ;  oldest  choral  melody,  as  of 
the  heart  of  mankind  ;  so  soft  and  great,  as  the 
summer  midnight,  as  the  world  with  its  seas  and 
stars.  There  is  nothing  written,  I  think,  of  equal 
literary  merit." 

So  speak  Scott,  Goethe,  Dickens,  and  others. 
Surely  such  men,  if  any,  are  reliable  critics.  Who 
are  entitled  to  speak  in  the  name  of  literature  if  not 
these  immortal  authors  ?  By  their  mouths  she  ap- 
proves and  crowns  the  Bible  as  one  of  her  greatest 
monuments.  As  a  mere  book  it  will  never  die. 
Such  hight  of  thought,  such  breadth  of  expression, 
such  aptness  in  speaking  to  the  great  heart  of  the 
11 


162  PRESUMPTIONS. 

race  —  surely  it  will  live  and  be  read  in  the  world's 
latest  afternoon  ;  and  when  the  last  ray  is  fading 
out  of  the  eye  of  humanity  it  will  not  be  toward 
Homer  or  Plato  that  the  straining  orb  will  be  found 
directing  itself,  but  rather  toward  the  various  glory 
of  that  one  book  which  deserves  to  be  called  the 
Book  of  Mankind. 

8.  The  Biblical  Religion  is  strikingly  adapted  to 
the  nature y  condition^  and  leading  wants  of  man. 

In  their  silent  libraries  philosophers  have  set 
themselves  down  to  draw  up  systems  of  govern- 
ment. In  some  instances  they  have  succeeded  in 
producing  what  has  reflected  great  credit  on  their 
ingenuity.  The  paper  constitution  shows  admir- 
ably. Here  is  learning,  here  is  skill,  here  are  just 
views,  here  is  great  judgment  in  selecting  particular 
laws  —  in  a  word,  a  very  fair  looking  theory.  But, 
on  attempting  to  carry  it  out  into  the  real  world,  it 
is  found  to  be  nothing.  It  is  infirm.  It  lacks 
adaptation  to  actual  life.  Somehow  it  cannot  work 
among  men,  as  men  are.  And  so  it  is  sent  back 
to  the  obscurity  of  the  shelf  —  perhaps  to  be  again 
drawn  forth  in  distant  years  to  show  the  talent  of 
its  autlior,  and  to  remind  men  that  something  more 
is  needed  to  give  practical  success  to  a  theory  than 
great  ingenuity  in  devising  it. 

Quite  another  character  and  fate  belong  to  some 
political  systems.  They  have  passed  from  paper  to 
practice.  They  have  gone  from  the  study  into 
actual  sovereignty  over  men.     Perhaps  they  never 


ADAPTATIONS.  163 

took  paper  or  study  in  their  way  to  sovereignty. 
And  yet  what  prodigious  daily  effects  !  Here  are 
none  of  your  philosophical  essays,  quietly  reposing 
in  their  embalmment  for  other  ages  ;  but  actual 
engines  working  away  most  effectively  on  actual  so- 
ciety. Most  effective  are  they  —  but  not  much  can 
be  said  for  the  character  of  the  effects.  Like  wild 
beasts  they  are  strong  chiefly  to  devour.  They  lift 
the  few  and  lower  the  many.  They  swell  the  palace 
of  the  ruler  and  narrow  the  cabins  of  the  people. 
And,  if  we  turn  from  these  effects  to  examine  the 
nature  of  the  systems  from  which  they  come,  we 
find  a  medley  of  ancient  customs  and  prejudices,  of 
ancient  truths  and  errors,  of  ancient  ricrhts  and 
wrongs,  of  which  the  chief  thing  to  be  said  is  that 
it  is  well  adapted  to  give  greatness  to  the  imperial 
families  of  Caliph  and   Grand  Mogul. 

Widely  different  from  each  of  these  is  the  Bib- 
lical system.  It  is  no  mere  paper  constitution.  As 
said  Napoleon,  "  The  Gospel  is  more  than  a  book  ; 
it  is  a  living  thing  ;  active,  powerful,  overcoming 
every  obstacle  in  its  way.'*  Nor  is  it  a  one-sided, 
sectional  force.  It  is  both  a  plausible  theory  and  a 
great  generic  power.  And.  the  power  is  one  that 
looks  and  strives  toward  the  needs  and  cravings  of 
all  mankind.  This  might  be  suspected  by  one 
Knowing  only  its  history.  In  the  early  Christian 
times  it  spread  with  immense  rapidity.  It  came, 
and  saw,  and  conquered  in  many  a  land.  Before 
the    first  century  was  through   it  had  overrun    the 


164  PRESUMPTIONS. 

irreat  Roman  empire.  No  brute  force  was  used. 
Nay,  the  success  was  against  force  and  prestige 
and  all  influence  and  passions  of  an  exceedingly- 
corrupt  age.  Ten  general  persecutions  came  up 
against  it  and  fell.  Philosophies,  acute  and  power- 
ful, Grecian  and  Roman  and  Oriental,  marched  out 
to  give  it  battle  and  became  its  vassals.  Institu- 
tions and  vices,  strong  in  the  ripeness  of  centuries, 
frowned  on  its  progress  and  were  shattered.  Over 
learning  and  riches,  over  numbers  and  station,  over 
depravity  and  antiquity,  over  armies  and  emperors, 
over  the  combination  of  the  highest  and  all  human 
forces,  that  great  Christian  Force  went  forward  in 
steady  triumph  till  the  Roman  world  was  covered 
with  its  temples,  till  the  masses  were  leavened  with 
its  spirit,  and  till  senators  and  Cassars  acknowledged 
it  Divine. 

What  was  the  secret  ?  Nothing  but  poor  and 
despised  men  talking  and  preaching  their  system  — 
what  was  the  secret  of  its  swift  advance  ?  One 
not  prepared  to  admit  that  it  was  befriended  by  a 
Divine  power,  will  at  least  admit  that  it  must  have 
had  some  strong  points  of  adaptation  to  the  people 
of  the  age ;  and,  when  he  reflects  on  the  great 
variety  of  peoples  included  in  the  all-devouring  Ro- 
man empire  of  those  days,  strong  points  of  adapta- 
tion to  the  nature  and  condition  of  mankind.  And 
since  those  old  times,  what  vitality  it  has  always 
shown  under  the  attacks  of  open  enemies,  what 
vitality  even  under  the  skillful  stabs  of  false  friends  ! 


ADAPTATIONS.  165 

What  numbers  of  the  worst  of  men  in  all  the  walks 
of  life  has  it  suddenly  revolutionized  !  How  it  has 
grown  and  triumphed  in  general  revivals,  often 
changing  permanently  the  whole  face  of  large  com- 
munities in  a  few  days  !  Surely,  I  say  again,  there 
must  be  large  elements  in  this  human  soil  adapted 
to  the  Christian  tree  —  else  it  could  not  have  grown 
so  fast ;  nor  have  withstood  the  droughts  and  storms 
and  axes  of  the  woodmen  so  well. 

What  are  these  elements  ?  On  examinino;  the 
Biblical  Religion  you  find  that  it  is  popular  in  form, 
various  in  manner,  profoundly  in  harmony  with  the 
elementary  conscience  of  the  world,  flexible  in  its 
circumstantials  while  most  inflexible  in  its  essence  ; 
full  of  strength  for  the  weak,  of  consolation  for  the 
sorrowful,  of  hope  for  the  discouraged,  of  stimulus 
for  the  sluggish,  of  support  for  just  authority,  of  de- 
fense for  the  defenseless,  of  action  for  the  practical, 
of  the  seeds  of  philosophy  for  the  speculative,  of  au- 
thority for  the  many,  of  terror  for  the  bad,  of  re- 
ward for  the  good,  of  pardon  for  the  penitent,  of  life 
for  the  dying.  These  are  great  points.  Most  men 
are  not  philosophers  —  far  from  it.  So  a  religion  in 
the  form  of  a  philosophy  would  not  be  suited  to 
them.  It  must  express  itself  after  the  manner  of 
the  common  people  ;  it  must  put  its  ideas  into  living 
forms,  and  connect  them  by  the  more  plain  and  easy 
principles  of  association.  This  the  Biblical  Relig- 
ion does.  It  knows  how  to  tell  its  story  effectively 
to  the  humblest  classes.     Men  are  very  various  in 


166  PREiSUMPTIONS. 

their  turns  of  mind.  One  takes  most  kindly  to 
narrative,  another  to  proverb,  another  to  poetry, 
another  to  epistle,  another  to  the  lofty  oration.  The 
same  person  in  various  moods  is  most  apt,  now  to 
this  and  now  to  that  form  of  writing.  The  Bible 
provides  for  this  variety.  Its  histories  describe,  its 
poems  sing,  its  apothegms  curtly  speak,  its  argu- 
ments enchain,  its  ])rophecies  proclaim  in  mingled 
prose  and  song.  Man  everywhere  is  profoundly 
possessed  by  a  sense  of  guilt  and  danger  and  insuffi- 
ciency —  often  covered  up  from  view  by  occupation 
and  other  causes,  but  on  special  occasions  breaking 
forth  at  the  surface,  like  some  subterranean  river, 
into  wide  lakes  and  streams ;  and  always  giving 
sign  of  itself  to  careful  observers  in  all  the  religions 
of  the  world,  and  in  all  the  leading  civil  economies 
and  traditions.  The  Bible  echoes  to  these  element- 
ary convictions  as  no  other  book  does,  and  goes  fur- 
ther with  its  offers  of  relief.  Men  are  weak  and 
need  strength ;  the  Bible  offers  strength  to  any  ex- 
tent. Men  are  ignorant  toward  religion  and  the 
future  after  death  ;  the  Bible  offers  to  meet  this 
need  more  fully  than  any  other  teacher.  Men  are 
timid  of  the  Great  Unknown  before  them  and  crave 
a  sense  of  absolute  safety  in  regard  to  it ;  the  Bible 
offers  such  a  sense,  and  constrains  poor  Byron  to 
say,  "  Indisputably,  the  firm  believers  of  the  Gos- 
pel have  a  great  advantage  over  all  others  ;  for  this 
simple  reason,  that  if  true  they  will  have  their  re- 
waid  hereafter  ;  and  if  there  be  no  hereafter,  they 


ADAPTATIONS.  If)  7 

can  but  be  with  the  infidel  in  his  eternal  sleep,  hav- 
ing had  the  assistance  of  an  exalted  hope  through 
life,  witliout  subsequent  disappointment ;  since,  at 
tlie  worst  for  them,  out  of  nothintr,  nothincr  can 
arise,  not  even  sorrow."  Men  are  everywhere 
tempted,  often  very  sorely,  and  need  victory  ;  the 
Bible  offers  protection  and  victory  in  the  greatest 
straits  and  aojainst  the  crreatest  odds.  Men  are  born 
to  trouble  —  ah,  what  fights  of  afilictions  sometimes 
—  and  need  comforting ;  the  Bible  offers  almost 
any  degree  of  comfort,  and  points  to  cases  almost 
without  number  in  which  it  has  made  its  offers  good. 
Men  get  dull  and  discouraged,  and  need  stimulus 
and  hope  ;  the  Bible  offers  the  inspiration  of  un- 
limited motive  and  royal  expectations.  Men  are 
guilty  and  need  peace  and  reform ;  the  Bible  offers 
pardon,  regeneration,  and  sanctification.  There 
are  bad  men  who  can  only  be  restrained  by  fears ; 
there  are  good  men  to  whom  a  heaven  is  appro- 
priate and  who  long  for  heaven  ;  the  Bible  spares 
neither  threats  nor  promises,  but  holds  up  in  one 
hand  the  blackness  of  heavenly  wrath  and  in  the 
other  the  whiteness  of  heavenly  crowns.  Men  come 
to  be  aged,  sick,  suffering,  dying,  and  need  a  joyful 
immortality  to  look  forward  to ;  th^  Bible  offers  to 
all  an  immortality  ruddy  and  athlete  with  the  glory 
of  perpetual  youth. 

I  came  to  a  young  man  who  for  some  time  had 
been  painfully  nearing  his  grave.  Yesterday  he 
was  a  skeptic.     It  seemed  as  if  he  would  never  be 


168  PRESUMPTIONS. 

otherwise  ;  his  face  was  set  like  a  flint.  To-day  I 
found  liim  a  believer.  How  came  tlie  swift  change  ? 
He  explained.  "  I  find/'  said  he,  "  that  the  Chris- 
tian Rehgion  is  adapted  to  the  wants  of  man,  espe- 
cially at  such  a  time  as  this."  He  had  made  a  great 
discovery. 

9.  The  Biblical  Religion  is  most  salutary  in  its 
observed  effects. 

I  have  called  your  attention  already  to  the  fact 
that  Christianity,  unlike  many  beautiful  specula- 
tions, has  a  faculty  for  going  into  actual  effect  in 
the  world  of  men.  Not  all  the  effect  one  could 
wish,  most  certainly  ;  but  still  effect  of  the  most  de- 
lightful and  suggestive  character.  What  careful 
observer  will  dispute  Lord  Bacon,  when  he  says. 
There  never  was  found,  in  any  age  of  the  world, 
either  philosopher  or  sect  or  law  or  discipline  which 
did  so  highly  exalt  the  public  good  as  the  Christian 
Faith  ! 

Yonder  community  smiling  with  order,  thrifty 
with  industry,  wise  with  culture,  delightful  with 
amiable  intercourse,  and  rich  with  Christian  virtues 
and  institutions  —  what  was  it  once  but  the  worst  of 
western  hamlets !  Intemperance  reeled.  Profan- 
ity buffeted  the  name  of  God.  Daily  and  nightly 
gambling  shuffled  its  cards  and  bred  its  quarrels. 
The  orgies  of  the  dram-shop  made  midnight  hideous 
with  sounds  that  wrung:  the  wakincj  hearts  of  wives 
and  mothers  and  sisters.  Children  grew  up  with- 
out instruction  and  without  restraint,  without  prin- 


EFFECTS.  169 

ciple  and  without  shame.  In  a  word,  the  place  was 
Sodom  —  a  smoke  in  the  nostrils  of  morality  and  de-' 
cency.  But  a  stranger  came,  bringing  with  him 
the  spoken  Bible.  He  labored,  now^  encouraged  and 
now  discouracred,  until  a  sood  measure  of  the  funda- 
mental  Gospel  had  been  put  into  firm  contact  with 
the  public  mind.  Then  came  a  rushing,  mighty 
wind.  Christianity  fought  with  the  abominations 
of  that  abominable  place,  like  some  great  Captain, 
and  conquered.  Sodom  was  born  again.  And  the 
laborer,  looking  forth  on  the  w^ell-watered  garden 
where  just  now  was  the  waste,  howling  wilderness, 
sung  in  his  heart  the  song  of  Miriam  over  a  mightier 
than  Miriam's  deliverance. 

A  great  change  has  come  over  yonder  household. 
Once  its  heads  were  children  of  Belial.  Brutal 
drunkenness  consumed  the  avails  and  faculty  of  la- 
bor. R'^se  ever  the  slirill  voices  of  strife,  and  not 
seldom  the  din  of  blows  and  cursing.  Through  the 
livelong  day  were  heard  such  words  and  seen  such 
practices  as  made  common  respectability  shut  its 
eyes  and  ears.  The  children  bade  fair  to  outdo 
even  the  shocking  example  set  them.  It  was  igno- 
rance and  idleness,  it  was  want  and  filth,  it  was  in- 
subordination and  tumult,  it  was  hatred  of  man  and 
defiance  of  God,  it  w^as  lying  and  stealing  and 
worse.  Heaven,  if  there  be  a  heaven,  have  mercy 
on  the  wretches  !  Can  anything  be  done  for  them  ? 
Even  the  good  man,  who  knew  by  experience  some- 
thing of  the  might  hidden  in  the  right  arm  of  Chris- 


170  PRESUMPTIONS. 

tianity,  asked  himself,  in  momentary  forge tfuln ess, 
as  he  passed  that  vile  tenement,  whether  aught 
could  cleanse  the  Augean  stables.  Yet  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  did  that  great  feat.  It  came  to  those  hard, 
corrupt  hearts,  and  melted  and  reformed  them.  It 
turned  that  den  into  a  cheerful  home  in  which  dwelt 
order,  peace,  purity,  thrift,  happiness,  usefulness, 
and  noblest  virtues — into  a  monument  more  royal 
than  sculptured  pyramid,  not  only  of  its  own  won- 
drous conquering  faculty,  but  also  of  its  faculty  to 
crown  all  families  with  the  highest  forms  of  blessinor. 
Such  effects  come  from  a  great  change  in  individ- 
uals. Christianity  swept  the  house  and  the  village 
because  it  had  first  swept  the  individual  heart.  I 
summon  up  to  my  thought  a  man  as  unworthy  as 
ever  trod  the  earth.  I  ask  myself  whether  there  is 
any  power  abroad  among  men  which  is  able  to  make 
new  that  body  of  death.  Rejoicingly,  I  find  myself 
bidden  by  a  thousand  facts  to  answer.  Yes.  Yes, 
Heaven  be  praised,  there  is  a  power  at  work  in  the 
world  which  can  reach  even  such  an  encyclopedia 
of  sin  I  It  is  the  Word  of  Faith  which  we  preach. 
This  can  cleanse  that  cage  of  unclean  birds.  This 
can  sweep  and  garnish  that  house,  after  having  cast 
out  of  it  seven  devils.  See,  while  I  speak  the  work 
is  begun.  See,  while  I  speak  the  work  is  finished. 
The  wretch  is  already  a  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus. 
The  unprincipled  heart  is  made  conscientious,  the 
hating  heart  is  made  loving,  the  sensual  heart  is 
made  pure,  the  heart  filled  with  low  and  groveling 


EFFECTS.  171 

aims  and  affections  is  made  to  dwell  on  high  even 
while  living  below.  Surely,  O  Religion  of  Jesus, 
thou  are  not  a  dead  letter  of  books,  but  a  thresher 
of  mountains  with  an  iron  flail,  a  breaker  up  of  the 
world's  fiillow  with  unequaled  plow-share,  a  stalwart 
sower  and  reaper  of  heavenly  grain  on  earthly  soil ! 
Has  Christianity  ever  been  known  to  lead  a  man 
into  bad  courses  ?  Did  anv  intelligent  father  ever 
imagine  that  his  family  was  made  less  pure  and  up- 
right by  its  means  ?  Was  ever  a  community  sus- 
pected of  being  made  more  wicked  by  the  faithful 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  in  it?  Never.  All  the  ef- 
fects are  in  the  opposite  direction.  Not  in  vain  do 
we  gather  millions  of  children  into  our  Sabbath- 
schools,  and  persuade  them  toward  early  virtue. 
Statistics  show  that  the  ranks  of  criminals  are  not 
fed  from  such  children.  Not  in  vain  do  we  gather 
millions  of  adults  weekly  before  our  pulpits,  and 
urge  them  to  that  "  holiness  without  which  no  man 
can  see  the  Lord."  Statistics  show  that  callows 
and  prisons  are  not  fed  by  such  men.  Not  in  vain 
do  we  send  the  vernacular  Bible  to  search  out  every 
mansion  and  cottage  in  the  land.  It  is  to-day  visibly 
consoling  thousands  of  sorrowful  hearts.  Thousands 
of  weak  and  tempted  men  are  to-day  visibly  re- 
strained by  it  from  evil.  It  is  visibly  reforming 
great  numbers  of  the  worst  of  men,  and  as  visibly 
sanctifying  great  numbers  of  the  best.  It  is  con- 
verting multitudes  of  dens,  most  dreary  and  wicked, 
into  pure  and  delightful   homes.     Indeed,  the  Bible 


172  PRESUMPTIONS. 

is  father  and  mother  of  homes.  Every  now  and 
then  it  gatliers  up  its  forces  into  a  spring  tide,  or 
overflowing  Nile  ;  and  entire  communities  that 
were  black  witli  foulness,  are  suddenly  cleansed 
and  made  green  as  the  most  emerald  spring.  So 
many  of  these  oases  lias  it  created  from  the  world's 
great  desert,  that  one  is  strongly  drawn  to  believe 
that  the  whole  dreadful  Sahara  may  at  last  be  re- 
covered to  verdure  by  the  steady  use  of  the  same 
means.  Indeed,  whole  countries  are  already  largely 
recovered.  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  of 
to-day  have  been  made  what  they  are  out  of  such 
unpromising  stuff  as  the  wild  Norsemen  of  a  thou- 
sand years  ago  —  made  by  the  Gospel.  The  Gospel 
has  filled  these  lands  with  schools  and  colleges,  with 
humane  and  charitable  institutions,  with  public 
economies  and  private  good,  to  be  found  nowhere 
else.  Historically  it  is  so.  And  what  the  Biblical 
Religion  has  done  for  these  countries  it  is  visibly 
doing  for  other  nominal  Christian  countries,  just  in 
proportion  as  the  Bible  has  faith  and  currency 
among  them.  Even  heathen  lands  are  beginning 
to  shine  under  the  same  transforming  power.  Chris- 
tianity is  evidently  beginning  to  do  over  for  them 
what,  ages  agone,  she  did  for  the  old  Roman  world. 
She  found  that  world  a  cancer.  Its  gods  were  per- 
sonified vices,  its  temples  were  brothels,  its  women 
were  almost  slaves,  its  slaves  were  ill-used  cattle, 
and  its  very  amusements  were  brutal  cruelties. 
The  youn(»  Christianity  came   abroad   and  speedily 


EFFECTS.  173 

chanored  all  this.  She  renewed  to  its  center  the 
standard  of  morals.  Woman  rose.  Slavery  disap- 
peared. Disappeared  the  vile  deities  and  viler  wor- 
ship. Common  })eople  were  discovered  to  have 
souls.  By  degrees  vice  became  the  exceeding 
shame  that  it  is.  Virtue  ceased  to  be  valor.  The 
weak  and  oppressed  found  a  friend  able  and  willing 
to  shield  them  from  the  raj)acious  and  powerful. 
Instead  of  gladiatorial  shows  and  Eleusinian  mys- 
teries and  temples  polluted  with  Bacchus  and 
Venus,  came  pure  sanctuaries  and  a  society  bot- 
tomed on  the  Decalogue  and  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  And  from  that  time  to  this,  just  in  pro- 
portion as  the  peo})le  have  been  kept  in  believing 
contact  with  the  Bible,  have  all  vices  faded  and  all 
virtues  freshened  ;  just  in  proportion  as  it  has  been 
withheld  from  such  contact  has  society  grown  cor- 
rupt. I  appeal  to  history.  Such  results  are  not 
only  to  be  presumed  from  the  nature  of  the  Biblical 
Religion,  but  they  are  historical.  It  belongs  to 
such  a  religion  to  do  such  things,  it  is  adequate  to 
do  them,  they  are  found  to  vary  directly  as  it  varies, 
and  there  is  no  other  assignable  cause  of  which  so 
much  can  be  said.  What  more  in  our  philosophy 
proves  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect?  And  if 
less  good  has  as  yet  been  done  than  could  be  de- 
sired, let  it  be  remembered  that  men  are  very  de- 
praved, that  the  habits  of  an  ancient  apostasy  are 
terribly  strong,  that  the  Religion  proposes  to  deal 
with  free  moral  agents,  and  that  the  world  is  on  a 


174  PRESUMPTIONS. 

long  path  which  may  gradually  brighten  and  ascend 
till  it  becomes  a  Milky  Way  in  the  skies. 

10.  The  Biblical  Religion  is  widely  accepted  by 
great  and  good  men. 

It  has  met  with  success  in  high  quarters.  It  has 
commended  itself  to  men  of  the  widest  understand- 
ings, the  most  accurate  and  extensive  culture,  the 
most  careful  and  exhaustive  investigation,  and, 
withal,  the  most  pure  and  exalted  character.  I  see 
Pascal  sitting  at  its  feet.  I  hear  Newton  and  Locke 
calling  themselves  after  its  name.  I  find  Milton, 
and  Boyle,  and  Grotius,  and  Hale,  and  Brewster, 
gladly  enlisting  in  its  service.  Nay,  I  find  an  army 
of  poets,  pliilosophers,  orators,  statesmen,  men  of 
science,  men  of  affairs  —  men  of  the  greatest  fac- 
ulties and  attainments,  and  as  good  as  great  —  mov- 
ing with  elastic  step  behind  its  standards.  A  glori- 
ous following !  Not  of  mere  geniuses,  you  perceive 
—  else  it  were  a  much  smaller  matter  —  but  of  men 
whose  characters  were  unspeakably  more  lofty  than 
their  intelligence.  The  body-guard  is  composed  of 
kings.  They  are  the  world's  greatest  and  best. 
Their  brows  are  hidden  with  laurels.  We  uncover 
before  them.  To  their  homes  and  haunts  we  go  on 
pilgrimage.  Their  very  names  are  an  insj)iration. 
From  age  to  age,  down  to  the  latest,  their  words 
and  deeds  shall  drop  sweetly  from  the  lips  of  men. 

Such  are  the  men.  Unlike  Hume  and  many  others 
of  his  class,  who  confess  that  they  have  never  read 
the  Bible  with  attention  but  yet  presume  to  pro- 


FRIENDS.  175 

nounce  against  It,  they  thoroughly  examined  the 
Book,  and  then  accepted  it  with  all  their  hearts. 
And  yet,  forsooth,  some  affect  to  think  scorn  of  the 
Gospel.  They  venture  to  speak  of  its  patent  incon- 
sistencies and  absurdities.  They  venture  to  ridicule 
it  as  fit  only  for  dotards  and  children  —  as  I  have 
known  men  to  do,  whose  narrow  faculties  and  nar- 
rower knowledge,  if  enlarged  a  thousand  fold,  could 
have  been  insphered  in  the  great  soul  of  believing 
Newton.  What  more  unlikely  ?  The  likelihood  is, 
that  a  religion  which  triumphantly  carries  the  ver- 
dict of  such  great  and  principled  judges,  has  merit 
of  the  highest  order,  and  is  able  to  show  evidences 
of  the  most  solid  and  convincing  aspect.  When 
your  specimen  has  come  back  to  you  from  the  most 
faithful  and  illustrious  chemists  of  the  age,  with 
their  formal  certificate  that  it  is  cr<-'nuine  croVl  —  who 
shall  blame  you  if  you  begin,  at  least,  to  take  high 
encouragement  ? 

11 .  The  Biblical  Religion  in  acceptable  everywhere^ 
just  in  proportion  as  men  are  well  disposed  to  virtue. 
Every  believer  will  find  that  as  his  virtue  varies 
in  degree,  so  varies  the  degree  of  his  faith.  Every 
unbeliever  will  find  that  in  his  worst  moods  as  a  sin- 
ner, he  is  always  the  most  emphatic  in  his  unbelief. 
Perhaps  you  have  not  yet  noticed  this.  But  do  you 
watch  yourselves.  You  will  find  I  am  right.  I 
have  observed  myself  and  others  too  narrowly  to  be 
deceived  in  this  matter.  I  am  willing  to  carry  my 
assertion  to  your  inmost  consciousness  and  future  ex- 


176  PRESUMPTIONS. 

perience,  and  there  leave  it.  Not  many  weeks  will 
elapse  before  your  watching  thought  will  become 
convinced  of  the  close  sympathy  between  your  state 
as  to  virtue  and  your  state  as  to  faitii.  No  delicate 
barometer  sympathizes  more  closely  with  the  weight 
of  the  air,  no  well-poised  vane  more  closely  with 
the  direction  of  the  wind.  Faith  and  goodness  are 
in  the  same  scale  of  the  balance.  As  one  rises  the 
other  rises  ;  as  one  sinks  the  other  sinks.  The  ex- 
perience is  as  uniform  as  the  laws  of  Nature.  So 
uniform  is  it  that  one  is  bound  to  conclude,  on  prin- 
ciples of  experimental  science,  that  were  his  charac- 
ter to  sink  to  the  bottom,  to  the  bottom  also  would 
sink  his  faith  ;  that  were  his  character  to  rise  to 
the  summits  of  sainthood,  his  faith  would  rise  to  as 
lofty  assurance.  And  history  accords.  Think  of 
Rousseau,  and  Voltaire,  and  Paine,  and  Vogt,  and 
Stirner,  and  Heine,  and  La  Mettrie,  and  Enfantin, 
and  many  another  —  those  abandoned  men  on  the 
one  hand,  and  those  fire-spitting  adversaries  of 
Christ  on  the  other.  "  Crush  the  wretch,"  said 
Voltaire  ;  and  crept  into  the  sty  of  the  sensualist, 
"  Crush  the  wretch,"  said  Paine  ;  and  grew  purple 
with  drunkenness  and  worse.  "  Crush  the  wretch," 
said  Max  Stirner ;  and  wrote,  '*  All  which  I  can  be 
and  have,  entirely  careless  whether  it  be  human  or 
inhuman,  I  will  be  and  will  have."  "  Crush  the 
wretch,"  said  La  Mettrie ;  and  wrote,  "  Virtue  and 
vice  are  empty  words ;  the  chief  care  of  a  reason- 
able man  should  be  to  satisfy  his  desires." 


FAITH  AND  VIRTUE.  177 

This  on  the  one  hand.  On  the  other,  if  you  find 
a  man  of  splendid  and  surpassing  goodness,  you  are 
sure  to  find  a  believer  in  that  Christ  whom  all  the 
vices  hate  and  persecute.  Even  if  you  find  a  de- 
vout Theist,  you  are  sure  to  find  him  as  devout  a 
Christian.  Even  if  you  find  an  habitually  praying 
person,  you  are  sure  to  find  him  kneeling  by  the 
side  of  a  Bible.     All  this  is  very  suggestive. 

12.  The  Biblical  Religioii^  in  main  respects,  is 
vastly/  superior  to  the  times  from  which  it  sprang,  and 
to  all  other  religions. 

We  have  a  very  tolerable  account  of  the  religious 
condition  of  Gentile  nations,  from  an  early  period 
down  to  the  time  when  the  Bible  was  a  completed 
book.  And  this  account  shows  a  wonderful  contrast 
between  the  Book  and  its  contemporaries.  It  is  plain, 
not  only  that  they  were  grossly  corrupt  in  their  liv- 
ing, but  that  their  religious  theories  were  of  a  sort 
to  match  their  living.  Turning  from  the  general 
run  of  them  to  the  Book  is  like  turning  from  night 
to  day.  Even  if  one  makes  selections,  and  puts  the 
choicest  of  those  old  times  and  countries  and  schools 
of  philosophy,  as  to  religious  views  and  practice, 
by  the  side  of  the  Scriptures,  the  contrast  is  still 
wonderful.  It  is  stili  the  difference  between  night 
and  day.  I  say  only  what  is  universally  admitted 
by  scholars  of  respectable  habits. 

How  came  the  Biblical  Religion  to  stand  so  high 
above  the  general  level  and  all  special  levels  of  its 
time  ?     How  came  so  pure  a  system  to  grow  out  of 

12 


178  PRES  UMPTIONS. 

so  corrupt  a  soil,  a  soil  whose  other  products  were 
all  so  corrupt  ?  How  came  so  rational  and  correct 
a  system  to  issue  from  times  so  crude  and  childish, 
as  well  as  abominable,  in  all  their  other  religious 
theories !  And  yet  the  Bible  rose  from  a  nation 
remarkably  bare  of  literature.  The  most  advanced 
part  of  it  is  not  from  the  hands  of  cultivated  and 
trained  thinkers,  but  from  those  of  illiterate  peas- 
ants ;  for  the  most  part,  from  the  illiterate  peasan- 
try of  one  of  the  least  speculative  countries  on  the 
globe.  And  yet  scholars  ^hall  go  hunting  through 
Vedas  and  Zendavestas  and  Hesiods,  and  even 
through  Platos  and  Senecas  and  Ciceros ;  and,  so 
far  from  finding  in  any  one  book  or  school  of  books 
a  religious  system  at  all  comparable  with  the  Bib- 
lical, they  shall  not  be  able  to  cull  such  a  system 
from  all  others  put  together,  much  less  from  writ- 
ings tolerably  consistent  with  each  other. 

And  to-day  —  though  eighteen  centuries  have 
gone  by  since  the  last  chapter  was  added  to  the 
Bible,  and  though  the  world  since  then  has  made 
great  advances  in  some  things  —  there  is  not  a 
scheme  of  doctrine  and  practice,  in  any  part  of  the 
world,  that  would  so  well  commend  itself  to  your 
common  sense  and  common  conscience  as  does  that 
of  the  Bible.  Our  own  time  has  been  largely  leav- 
ened with  Biblical  ideas.  They  are  at  large  in  the 
common  atmosphere,  and  are  breathed  by  every- 
body. So,  when  you  take  the  teachings  of  some  ex- 
ceptionally correct  infidel  and  compare  them  with 


OTHER  RELIGIONS.  179 

the  Bible,  you  really  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  com- 
pare the  Bible  with  itself.  That  vou  may  see  what 
the  Book  is  in  comparison  with  other  systems,  you 
really  need  to  go  to  countries  or  times  that  have 
been  wholly  aside  from  its  influence.  But  waiving 
this,  and  allowing  comparison  to  be  made  between 
the  old  Bible  and  the  fairest  specimen  of  unbelieving 
religious  speculation  now  abroad  in  Christendom,  I 
know  that  your  sober  English  judgment  would  say 
that  a  great  gulf  yawns  between  them  —  to  the  very 
great  advantage  of  the  Bible.  Take  the  very  best 
book  of  young  Germany,  and  tiiis  would  be  your 
feeling.  I  only  assume  that  you  hold  fast  common 
sense  and  a  tolerable  system  of  morals.  You  would 
feel  that,  if  the  Bible  has  difficulties,  not  a  rival  but 
has  greater.  You  would  feel  that,  if  there  are  vex- 
atious differences  among  the  interpreters  of  the  Bi- 
ble, they  are  less  many  and  serious  than  those  be- 
tween the  adherents  of  any  known  school  of  philos- 
ophy. You  would  feel  that  the  best  of  them  all  is 
very  far  from  being  so  noble  in  its  purpose  ;  so  great 
in  its  means  ;  so  holy  in  its  practical  teachings ;  in 
such  striking  accord,  as  to  its  doctrines  and  facts, 
with  Nature  and  history ;  so  strikingly  adapted  to 
the  nature,  condition,  and  leading  wants  of  man- 
kind ;  and  so  salutary  in  its  observed  effects,  as  the 
old  Biblical  Relio;ion  under  whose  fruitful  bouo-hs  our 
fathers  lived  and  died. 

13.  It  is  really  the  Biblical  Religion  or  none  ;  and 
no-religion  is  the  overthrow  of  society. 


180  PRESUMPTIONS. 

Confessedly,  no  other  of  the  so-called  Revealed 
Religions  can  compete  with  the  Biblical  in  g  neral 
credibility.  If  we  are  shut  up  to  choose  between 
this  and  the  best  of  the  others,  current  or  classical 

—  say  the  Brahminical,  the  Buddhist,  the  Moham- 
medan, the  Greek  and  Roman  —  the  choice  is  soon 
made.  In  purity,  in  reasonableness,  in  sublimity, 
in  self-consistency,  in  superiority  to  its  age,  in  in- 
trinsic power,  in  conformity  to  facts  and  Nature,  in 
adaptation  to  the  wants  of  mankind,  in  usefulness, 

—  not  one  of  them  but  falls  wonderfully  behind 
Christianity.  If  this  is  not  Divine,  how  much  less 
those  !  So  feels  every  intelligent  infidel  in  Christen- 
dom. Not  a  man  among  us  would,  on  giving  up 
his  Bible,  for  one  moment  think  of  supplying  its 
place  with  the  Hindoo  or  Persian  or  Arabian  or  any 
other  Scriptures.  But  might  he  not  supply  it  with 
Natural  Reliorion  ?  Mi^ht  he  not  bv  mere  licrht  of 
Nature  hold  fast  to  God,  to  His  government,  to  our 
responsibility  to  Him,  and  to  the  reality  of  moral 
distinctions  ?  Nay.  The  same  principles  of  crit- 
icism and  modes  of  reasoning  which  he  has  allowed 
to  destroy  his  confidence  in  the  Bible  are  equally 
good  against  the  most  elementary  doctrines  of  the 
religion  of  Nature.  It  has  long  been  seen  that  the 
leading  objections  against  the  Bible  apply  with  equal 
force  against  the  constitution  and  course  of  Nature, 
as  the  work  of  God.  And  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
whole  wa}*  of  dealing  that  puts  away  tlie  Bible  is 
just  as  pertinent  against  even  the  common  princi- 


ALTERNATIVE.  181 

pies  of  morality.  With  it  one  could  as  well  disprove 
to  you  the  guilt  of  lying  and  stealing  and  murder. 
That  axe  will  cut  down  anything  you  please.  Had 
I  space  I  could  give  you  some  convincing  examples. 
But  they  are  unnecessary.  None  know  better  than 
you,  from  the  effect  produced  on  your  own  minds, 
whither  that  sort  of  objecting  and  caviling,  with 
which  you  are  familiar  as  used  against  the  Scrip- 
tures, tends.  It  strikes  at  the  roots  of  all  religious 
faith.  And  no  one  who  allows  it  to  destroy  his 
Christianity  can  logically  save  from  its  devouring 
edge  the  simplest  teaching  of  Natural  Religion. 

A  subtle  sense  of  this  awakes  in  most  minds  as 
soon  as  they  have  given  up  faith  in  the  Bible.  They 
feel  unsettled  universally.  And,  after  a  while,  they 
are  found  drifting,  drifting  downward  toward  com- 
plete religious  skepticism.  Of  course  men  do  not 
often  feel  like  giving  up  all  faith  at  once.  They  are 
terrified  at  the  hugeness  of  such  a  lapse.  So  they 
commonly  feel  their  way  very  gradually  to  the  bot- 
tom. But  the  bottom  is  where,  if  spared,  most  of 
them  arrive  sooner  or  later.  The  noted  leaders  are 
there  already,  and  the  disciples  will  evidently  all  ar- 
rive in  due  time.  Their  children  in  most  cases  move 
faster  than  themselves  —  but  they  are  all  moving. 
The  drift  is  as  sensible  as  was  ever  that  of  any 
straws  to  the  heart  of  a  whirlpool,  or  of  western 
stars  to  their  setting.  After  a  few  years  of  infidelity 
very  few  distinctly  recognize  to  their  own  hearts 
either  a  God  or  the  reality  of  moral  distinctions. 


182  PRESUMPTIONS. 

They  may  be  unwilling  to  confess  it.  They  may 
hardly  be  aware  of  the  state  of  their  own  minds.  But 
a  critical  observer  will  have  little  trouble  in. discover- 
ing, from  many  tokens,  that  they  are  really  just  as 
unsettled  on  Theism  and  the  whole  theory  of  morals 
as  they  are  on  Christianity.  For  now  many  years 
I  have  stood  and  looked  in  at  the  clear  windows  of 
such  men's  lives  and  language  —  pressing  searching 
face  against  the  panes —  and  I  think  I  know  all  about 
the  process  going  on  within.  Everything  is  steadily 
drifting  toward  the  complete  annihilation  of.  faith. 
And  now  I  can  boldly  affirm  to  the  iinnost  con- 
sciousness of  almost  every  reflecting  man  among 
them,  that  he  is  just  as  far  from  the  elementary 
Natural  Religion  as  he  is  from  Christianity. 

Neither  in  theory  nor  in  fact,  is  there  any  stop- 
ping-place for  most  persons  between  Christianity  and 
total  religious  skepticism.  They  will  not  and  cannot 
stop  at  Mohammedanism,  or  any  such  system.  They 
will  not  and  cannot  stop  at  Natural  Religion.  Ac- 
cording to  experience,  and  according  to  consistent 
logic,  they  are  bound  to  go  on  to  total  Night — not 
taking  harbor  with  even  the  most  simple  elements  of. 
moral  and  religious  truth.  For  even  the  doom  of 
these  elements  is  spoken  when  Christianity  dies. 
From  that  moment  they  pale  and  weaken  ;  and  at  last 
gaspingly  ask  to  be  buried  by  the  side  of  the  dear 
dead  Biblical  RehVion  —  the  mother  whose  bosom 
nourished  them  and  without  whom  they  cannot  live. 
Come  to  the  burial,  ye  Heavens  and  Earth  —  jnit 


THEIR  IMPORT.  183 

on  all  your  sables  and  come  to  weep  at  the  dreadful 
funeral  of  the  last  of  Religions !  Woe  worth  the 
day  !  It  is  the  blackest  yet  seen  by  a  world  that  has 
seen  many  dark  days. 

Who  does  not  know  it  ?  The  entire  absence  of 
religious  belief  is  repugnant  to  nature,  at  war  with 
all  interests,  and  utterly  dissolving  to  society.  This 
has  been  the  feeling  from  time  immemorial  with 
those  who  have  governed  mankind.  And  it  has 
even  been  the  feeling  of  mankind  itself.  From  the 
beginning,  men  have  shrunk  from  a  faithless  world 
with  the  mighty  instinct  of  self-preservation.  And 
such  a  world  is  the  world's  destruction.  Any  rea- 
sonable man  may  know  it  sufficiently  well  from  the 
nature  of  things ;  and  any  observing  man  may  know 
it  still  more  impressively  from  the  course  of  human 
experience.  We  do  not  need  to  see  the  world  actu- 
ally voided  of  the  last  atom  of  faith,  and  then  in- 
continently falling  to  pieces.  Experience  has  a  less 
terrible  way  of  teaching  us.  Do  we  not  know  what 
would  be  the  effect  of  losing  all  heat  from  our  globe, 
though  such  a  disaster  has  never  happened  ?  Our 
experience  of  the  effect  of  partial  loss  abundantly  in- 
forms us.  It  would  be  universal  death.  In  the 
same  way  experience  informs  us  that  the  entire  re- 
moval of  religious  faith  from  the  world  would  result 
in  mortal  catastrophe.  We  have  had  countless  par- 
tial losses  of  faith.  We  have  had  countless  persons, 
families,  communities,  with  as  many  different  degrees 
of  it,  and  not  a  few  with  little  or  none.     And,  al- 


184  PRESUMPTIONS. 

together,  the  tendency  of  things  is  as  clear  as  the 
sun.  We  know  what  would  be  the  effect  of  abating 
faith  to  nothing  among  men,  as  clearly  as  we  know 
what  would  be  the  effect  of  taking  away  the  sun 
from  tlie  world.  We  know  it  by  an  induction  as 
broad  and  conclusive  as  ever  underlaid  a  science. 
It  means  disorder.  It  means  wickedness.  It  means 
the  decay  of  homes  and  governments.  It  means  the 
French  Revolution  ;  and  such  men  as  Robespierre, 
and  Mirabeau,  and  Proudhon,  and  Cabot,  and  Fou- 
rier, and  Comtd.  It  means  alternate  revolutions  and 
iron-fisted  despotisms  in  swift  succession.  It  means 
a  horrible  carnival  of  vice  and  violence  and  misery 
all  over  the  world.  In  short,  it  means  the  last  ditch 
for  humanity,  and  immeasurable  mire  at  that.  The 
earth  would  be  a  blot,  and  mankind  a  nuisance  that 
ought  to  be  abated. 

Ye  who  would  lead  secure  lives  ;  who  care  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  your  labor  ;  who  want  your  children  to 
do  well ;  who  have  not  lost  all  regard  to  your  coun- 
try ;  who  are  not  yet  become  misanthropes,  and 
would  be  sorry  to  have  tlie  planet  become  an  intol- 
erable cess-pool  fuming  black  clouds  against  the  sun 
till  all  light  and  sweetness  disappear  —  stand  up  for 
some  Religion.  Nay,  stand  up  for  some  revealed 
Religion  ;  for  the  majority  of  men,  to  say  the  least, 
must  have  an  authoritative  system  with  trutlis  and 
sanctions  which  do  not  need  to  be  reasoned  out  after 
the  manner  of  philosophers.  And  this  is  the  same 
thing  as  saying.  Stand  up  for  the  Biblical  Religion. 
It  is  this  or  none. 


ALTERNATIVE.  185 

Thomas  Paine  sent  the  manuscript  of  his  "  Age  of 
Reason  "  to  Benjamin  Franklin  for  his  judgment. 
That  sagacious  philosopher  returned  it  with  these 
words  :  "  I  advise  you  against  attempting  to  unchain 
the  tiger.  Burn  your  piece  before  it  is  seen  by  any 
other  person.  If  the  world  is  so  wicked  with  re- 
ligion, what  would  it  be  without?" 


X. 

THREE   PROPHECIES, 


X.     Three  Prophecies. 

1.  THEIR   AGE '^ 

2.  TYRE 192 

3.  BABYLON •  .  .  195 

4.  MESSIAH ^99 

5.  SUMMING    UP 203 


THREE   PROPHECIES. 

T  PROPOSE  to  give  an  account  of  the  fulfillment 
-^  of  certain  prophecies  contained  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  better  to  secure  my  object,  I  will  begin 
with  a  few  words  on  the  age  of  those  parts  of  the 
Scriptures  to  which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  ap- 
peal. 

Once  in  a  while  some  one  ventures  to  suojo-est 
that  the  so-called  prophecies  were  written  after  the 
events  which  they  describe  took  place.  Of  course 
this  is  easily  enough  said.  If  my  ignorance  is  suf- 
ficiently great,  or  my  conscience  sufficiently  small, 
I  can  affirm  very  gravely  that  there  is  nothing  re- 
liable in  the  common  and  accepted  histories  of  the 
day ;  that  the  American  Revolution  is  a  fable  ;  that 
there  never  were  such  men  as  Napoleon  and  Charle- 
magne ;  that  Julius  Caesar  flourished  two  centuries 
ago  instead  of  nineteen ;  that  Sallust  and  Virgil  and 
Horace,  Xenophon  and  Thucydides  and  Herodotus 
either  were  not  real  persons,  or  were  Italian  and 
Greek  monks  of  the  time  of  the  Crusades.  'Tistrue 
men  would  lift  their  eyebrows  in  derision  ;  'tis  true 
they  might  decline  to  waste  argument  on  so  un- 
reasonable a  person  ;  still  I  can  say  the  absurd 
things  and  even  attempt  to  offer  reasons  in  support 


190  THREE  PROPHECIES. 

of  them.  So,  if  one  chooses,  he  can  say  that  the 
Epistles  of  Paul  and  John  were  written  after  the 
Papacy  was  matured  ;  that  the  books  of  Isaiah  and 
Daniel  were  composed  after  Christ's  time ;  that 
Ezekiel  and  Zechariah  were  never  known  till  after 
the  date  of  Alexander  the  Great.  Nothing  is  easier 
than  such  assertions — nothing.  The  clumsiest  man 
can  speak  and  print  them  to  any  extent.  All  he 
needs  in  order  to  do  it  consistently  is  a  readiness  to 
cast  away  the  foundation  on  which  all  received  his- 
tory stands,  and  to  admit  that  nothing  whatever  is 
worthy  of  credit  by  a  man  save  what  some  one  or 
more  of  his  own  five  senses  has  tested. 

There  is  no  national  history  in  the  world  that  has 
so  many  marks  of  hteral  and  conscientious  truthful- 
ness about  it  as  the  Jewish.  It  is  no  flattering 
eulogy,  as  we  well  know.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a 
grave  account  of  a  course  of  misconduct  and  dis- 
aster on  the  part  of  the  Jews,  to  read  which  must 
have  been  to  them  mortifying  in  the  extreme. 
Nothing  but  honesty  would  have  thought  of  con- 
structing such  records  ;  nothing  but  their  indispu- 
table truthfulness  could  have  compelled  so  proud  a 
race  as  the  Jews  to  acknowledge  them  as  genuine 
history.  The  man  who  needs  to  be  told  that  nations 
do  not  feign  of  themselves  such  histories  as  the  Old 
Testament  contains,  from  Judges  onward,  is  not 
likely  to  receive  any  benefit  from  argument.  Now, 
these  candid,  severe,  and  searching  annals  inform 
us  —  not  directly,  but  still  more  impressively  by  the 


THEIR  AGE.  191 

manner  in  which  events  and  persons  are  linked  to- 
gether —  that  Isaiah  wrote  about  one  hundred  years 
before  the  first  destruction  of  Tyre,  one  hundred 
and  sixty  years  before  the  destruction  of  Babylon, 
and  seven  hundred  years  before  Christ ;  that  Ezekiel, 
Amos,  and  Zechariah  wrote  about  three  hundred 
years  before  the  second  fall  of  Tyre,  and  all  the 
prophets  at  least  four  hundred  years  before  Christ. 
We  are  certified  of  these  dates  in  precisely  the  same 
manner  in  which  we  are  certified  that  Hume  wrote 
a  history  about  one  century  ago,  Tacitus  seventeen 
centuries,  Xenophon  twenty-two  centuries,  Herod- 
otus twenty-three  centuries.  And  the  works  of 
these  Pagan  authors  we  are  confident  we  have  now. 
Why  ?  Because  we  have  books  bearing  their  names, 
attributed  to  tliem  by  universal  tradition,  internally 
consistent  with  such  an  authorship.  This  is  the 
sufficient  reason.  Just  the  reason,  too,  we  are  con- 
fident that  we  have  the  writings  of  those  ancient 
Scriptural  Jews.  Certain  books  are  inscribed  with 
the  names  of  Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  Daniel ;  they  are 
such  as  those  men  would  naturally  write ;  it  is  the 
overwhelming  and  uncounteracted  tradition  that 
they  were  the  authors.  Let  the  man  to  whom  this 
is  not  enough  quit  his  hold  of  historical  facts  alto- 
gether. The  whole  great  Past  is  vanished  —  dead. 
The  scenes  which  genius  has  pictured,  schools  have 
studied,  cabinets  and  senates  walked  by,  and  all 
people  quoted  as  incontestable  verities,  are  a  mere 
novel;  which  let  him  who  has  infinite  leisure  read. 


192  THREE  PROPHECIES. 

Setting  it  clown,  then,  as  among  the  best  estab- 
lished of  facts  that  the  book  of  Isaiah  was  written 
about  one  hundred  years  before  tlie  first  destruction 
of  the  city  of  Tyre,  and  the  books  of  Ezekiel,  Araos, 
and  Zechariah  about  three  Imndred  years  before 
the  second  fall  of  that  citv,  let  us  examine  their 
predictions  of  these  events.  These  may  be  found 
chiefly  in  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  the 
twenty-sixtli  of  Ezekiel,  the  first  of  Amos,  and  the 
ninth  of  Zechariah.  The  following  particulars  are 
given.  Tyre  would  be  destroyed  by  the  Chaldasans ; 
the  citizens  would  extensively  escape  ;  they  would 
have  no  rest  in  their  places  of  sojourn ;  the  city- 
would  be  restored  after  the  lapse  of  a  period  equal 
to  the  life  of  the  king  who  should  destroy  it ;  this 
period  would  be  seventy  years  ;  after  a  while  the 
city  would  oe  destroyed  the  second  time  ;  it  would 
be  burned ;  its  remains  would  be  cast  into  the  sea ; 
it  would  never  again  recover  its  original  impor- 
tance ;  still  there  would  be  a  time  when  it  would  be 
devoted  to  the  service  of  the  true  God  ;  at  last  it 
would  become  a  mere  fisher's  rock. 

Such  were  the  predictions.  How  have  they 
agreed  with  facts  ?  About  one  hundred  years  after 
Isaiah  wrote,  Tyre  was  destroyed  by  the  Chaldaeans. 
The  citizens  did  largely  escape  ;  history  informing 
us  that  they  and  most  of  their  effects  were  removed 
by  sea  before  Nebuchadnezzar  entered  the  city. 
They  literally  had  no  rest  in  the  places  of  their 
sojourn  ;  history  informing  us  that    the  conqueror 


TYRE.  193 

marched  immediately  to  the  sack  of  Egypt,  and 
spread  tlie  terror  of  his  name  through  all  the  coasts 
and  islands  of  the  Mediterranean  where  they  had 
taken  refuge,  keeping  them  in  constant  fear  and  un- 
certainty. The  city  was  restored  in  seventy  years, 
and  this  was  the  age  to  which  Nebuchadnezzar 
lived  ;  history  informing  us  that  he  reigned  forty- 
four  years,  and  was  mature  enough  to  take  charge 
of  an  army  when  he  began  to  reign.  Rebuilt  Tyre 
was  destroyed  the  second  time  by  Alexander  the 
Great,  who  cast  the  remains  of  the  old  city  into 
the  sea  to  form  a  causeway  for  his  troops  to  assail 
and  burn  the  new.  It  has  never  recovered  its  old 
consequence  ;  was  how  ever  at  one  time  the  seat  of 
flourishing  Christian  churches ;  but  is  now  a  mere 
fisher's  rock,  and  every  day  becoming  more  bare 
and  scraped.  For  a  long  course  of  years  the  har- 
bor has  been  becoming  shallow,  and  now  only  small 
boats  can  enter  it ;  so  that  an  engineer  would  say 
that  Tyre  must  remain  a  perpetual  desolation.  Not 
a  ruin,  nor  fragment  of  a  ruin,  can  be  found  to 
mark  the  site  of  her  ancient  greatness  —  as  says  the 
Scripture,  Though  thou  be  sought  for,  yet  shalt  thou 
never  be  found  again. 

At  the  time  when  Isaiah  wTote,  Tyre  was  in  all 
her  strength  and  glory,  and  for  the  thousand  years 
of  her  history  had  never  once  been  subject  to  a 
foreign  state.  At  the  same  time,  too,  the  Clial- 
dseans  were  a  weak  and  obscure  people,  little  likely 
in  human  judgment  to  perform  the  feat  predicted  of 

13 


194  THREE  PROPHECIES. 

them.  Observe  how  clear  and  circumstantial  are  the 
predictions  !  What  a  number  of  particulars  specified  ! 
Were  these  merely  fortunate  conjectures,  these 
merely  accidental  coincidences  ?  Of  the  hundreds 
of  cities  which  have  fallen,  what  one  besides  Tyre 
would  all  these  predictions  suit  —  the  Chaldaean 
conqueror,  the  escape,  the  restoration,  the  seventy 
years,  the  age  of  the  conqueror,  the  second  fall,  the 
burning,  the  casting  of  all  the  ruins  into  the  sea, 
the  partial  restoration,  the  Christianizing,  the  per- 
petual desolation  ?  Even  the  single  particular  that 
every  trace  of  the  city  should  vanish,  has  never  been 
realized  in  the  case  of  any  other  historical  city. 
Tadmor,  Palmyra,  Baalbec,  Babylon,  Thebes, 
Nineveh — all  have  their  mounds  of  rubbish,  their 
broken  columns,  or  their  quawied  foundations. 
But  not  a  fragment  of  Tyre  remains.  The  few 
w^retched  hovels  in  the  vichiity  of  its  site,  and  to 
which  its  name  has  been  given,  have  not  a  stone  of 
the  famous  city  in  them  ;  and  the  few  fishermen  who 
now  dry  their  nets  on  the  scraped  rock  of  new  Tyre, 
with  the  Bedouins  who  pitch  their  tents  for  a  night 
on  the  opposite  sands  of  the  earlier  city,  see  nothing 
whatever  to  remind  them  that  here  once  shone  the 
mother  and  queen  of  the  world's  commerce. 

Outside  of  the  religious  field  I  do  not  think  men 
ever  ascribe  such  coincidences  as  these  to  hap-haz- 
ard  contingency.  At  least  I  do  not  remember  to 
have  seen  it  done.  But  I  do  remember  that  it  has 
been  suggested  that  predictions  may  sometimes  work 


BABYLON.  195 

their  own  fulfillment.  So  I  ask  myself  whether  the 
enemies  of  Tyre,  hearing  of  the  predictions  against 
her,  might  not  have  been  prompted  by  tliem  to  assail 
her  and  shape  events  into  the  predicted  forms.  Did 
Nebuchadnezzar,  after  besieging  the  city  for  thirteen 
years,  allow  the  citizens  to  escape  with  their  prop- 
erty in  order  to  save  the  credit  of  a  Jewish  prophecy, 
or,  for  the  same  reason,  live  till  he  was  seventy  years 
old  ?  Did  the  Medes  and  Persians  break  down  the 
Babylonian  empire  just  at  the  end  of  seventy  years 
in  order  to  give  Tyre  a  chance  to  be  rebuilt  and 
fulfill  Isaiah  ?  Did  Alexander  the  Great  build  his 
causeway  that  the  words  of  Ezekiel  might  stand 
good.  They  shall  lay  thy  stones  and  thy  timber  and 
thy  dust  in  the  midst  of  the  waters,  and  though 
thou  be  sought  for,  yet  shalt  thou  never  be  found 
again  ?  There  is  but  one  explanation  :  Those  Jews 
were  real  prophets.  They  spake  by  inspiration  of 
Him  who  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning,  and  from 
ancient  times  the  things  that  are  not  yet  done. 

Again,  setting  it  down  as  among  the  best  estab- 
hshed  of  facts  that  the  book  of  Isaiah  was  written  at 
least  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  before  the  fall  of 
Babylon,  and  the  book  of  Jeremiah  at  least  sixty 
years  before  that  event,  let  us  examine  their  predic- 
tions in  relation  to  it.  These  predictions  may  be 
found  in  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  forty-fourth 
chapters  of  the  first-named  prophet ;  and  in  the 
fiftieth  and  fifty-first  of  the  second.  The  following 
particulars  are  given.    Babylon  should  be  shut  up  by 


196  THREE  PROPHECIES. 

the  Medes  and  Persians;  their  leader  should  bear  the 
name  of  Cyrus ;  the  river  Euphrates  should  be  dried 
up ;  two  gates  should  be  left  open  ;  the  city  should 
be  taken  during  a  feast  when  all  her  rulers  and 
mighty  men  were  drunken  ;  the  king  and  his  family 
should  be  slain ;  the  sacked  city  should  cease  to  be 
inhabited ;  the  shepherd  should  not  even  make  his 
fold,  nor  the  Arabian  pitch  tent  there  ;  it  should  even 
become  pools  of  water,  a  possession  for  bitterns,  a 
den  of  wild  beasts  and  dragons  and  other  doleful 
creatures. 

Such  were  the  predictions.  How  do  they  com- 
pare with  facts  ?  Years  pass  away  and  the  Medes 
and  Persians  are  actually  blockading  Babylon  ;  and, 
strange  to  say,  their  chief  is  Cyrus.  After  the  siege 
has  lasted  two  years,  he  changes  the  course  of  the 
river  that  flows  through  the  city,  enters  by  the  dry 
bed  at  dead  of  night,  finds  the  gates  tliat  guard  the 
passage  up  from  the  river  neglected  in  the  disorder 
of  a  feast,  marches  direct  to  the  palace  where  he 
finds  all  the  principal  men  already  overcome  with 
wine  —  and  Babylon  is  fallen.  Still  the  city,  unlike 
Tyre,  is  preserved.  In  a  short  time,  however,  Ctesi- 
phon  and  Seleucia  are  built,  and  the  citizens  grad- 
ually forsake  their  old  dwellings  for  the  new  cities. 
The  obstructed  Euphrates  overflows,  and  makes 
pools  along  the  forsaken  streets  and  markets.  The 
irrigation  of  the  plain  is  neglected,  and  the  fervid 
sun  parches  it  into  a  desert  where  no  shepherd  can 
feed  his  sheep  nor  Arab  his  camels.     At  last  a  Per- 


BABYLON.  197 

sian  king  turns  the  spot  into  a  hunting  ground,  stock- 
ing it  with  wild  beasts.  Lions  roar  to  lions  in 
deserted  temples,  dragons  hiss  to  dragons  in  vacant 
palaces,  the  bitterns  from  their  pools  cry  to  owls  and 
cormorants  in  ceiled  houses.  Nothino-  but  ruin  to 
this  day  —  one  wide  scene  of  unrelieved  and  affect- 
ing desolation,  where  sat  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years  the  Lady  of  kingdoms  and  Beauty  of  the 
Chaldees'  excellency  I 

Here  again  observe  how  circumstantial  are  the 
predictions.  Of  course  it  is  safe  enough  to  predict 
that  any  given  city  will  fall  at  some  time :  but  to 
tell  by  what  nations,  by  what  prince,  whether  by 
day  or  night,  by  assault  or  stratagem,  in  time  of 
sobriety  or  of  revel  —  in  short,  with  some  fifteen  or 
twenty  specifications  of  circumstances  such  as  should 
never  be  connected  with  the  fall  of  any  other  his- 
torical city  —  this  would  be  a  very  different  matter. 
Suppose  it  were  predicted  that  the  city  of  New  York 
should  fall ;  fall  by  a  coahtion  of  Mexicans  and  Bo- 
livians led  on  by  Montezuma  XIV.  ;  fall  in  the 
course  of  a  blockade  ;  fa-11  in  the  night  when  the 
mayor  and  aldermen  were  at  a  feast ;  fall  by  being 
entered  on  Broadway,  where  the  usual  sentinels  and 
guards  had  not  been  set ;  fall  with  the  accompani- 
ment of  the  death  of  the  mayor  and  all  his  family : 
further,  that  after  a  while  the  city,  though  left  stand- 
ing, should  cease  to  be  inhabited ;  become  marshy  ; 
have  its  mansions  become  the  lairs  of  fierce  and  loath- 
some animals,  and  never  recover  from  its  desolation 


198  THREE   PROPHECIES. 

to  the  end  of  time  ;  —  I  say,  suppose  all  this  were 
predicted  of  our  commercial  metropolis,  and  you 
could  by  some  wonderful  clairvoyance  look  down 
the  stream  of  the  next  thousand  years  and  find  facts 
answering  to  the  prophecy  in  every  particular, 
would  you  hesitate  to  say,  This  is  a  real  prophecy. 
The  men  who  make  it  are  counseled  by  Him  who 
dwells  in  the  remote  Future  as  in  the  Present? 
What  would  it  signify  though  some  should  shrug 
their  shoulders,  and  say  that  it  is  indeed  a  very 
happy  conjecture,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of 
accidental  coincidences?  Would  you  not  know 
better  ?  What  would  it  signify  though  some  one 
should  begin  to  descant  to  you  on  the  power  of  a 
clear  prediction  to  verify  itself?  Do  you  not  know 
that  such  a  thing  would  be  likely  to  do  quite  as 
much  to  defend  the  city  as  to  destroy  it ;  that  where 
it  would  lead  assailants  to  make  special  attack  it 
would  lead  defenders  to  post  special  vigilance  ;  that 
the  same  hint  which  would  fix  an  attack  on  the 
night  of  a  feast  would  prevent  any  such  feast  from 
being  held,  the  same  hint  that  would  lead  men  to 
take  advantage  of  a  certain  neglected  post  would 
prevent  that  post  from  being  neglected  ?  This 
argument  has  special  force  in  the  case  of  the  Baby- 
lonians. They  were  more  likely  than  their  assailants 
to  have  been  aware  of  the  Jewish  prophecies  respect- 
ing the  fall  of  their  capital.  The  Jews,  witli  Daniel 
at  their  head,  had  been  living  among  them  for  many 
years.     Certainly  the  fall  of  Babylon  and  its  subse- 


MESSIAH.  199 

quent  condition  are  a  monument  to  the  reality  of  a 
Divine  inspiration  hard  to  be  gainsayed !  Put  the 
book  by  the  facts  —  Isaiali  and  Jeremiah  by  Xen- 
ophon  and  Siculus  and  Strabo  and  Phny  —  and  the 
mind  says  solemn  amen  to  all  civilized  ages  and  na- 
tions who  have  well  heard  the  facts,  as  with  one 
voice  they  say,  Holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Setting  it  down  as  amono;  the  best  established  of 
facts  that  the  Old  Testament  prophecies  were  writ- 
ten several  centuries  before  the  time  of  Jesus,  let 
us  examine  wliat  they  say  respecting  the  Messiah. 
The  following  particulars  are  given.  Shiloh,  always 
understood  by  the  Jews  to  be  the  Messiah,  should 
come  before  the  scepter  should  depart  from  Judah  ; 
should  come  while  the  temple  was  yet  standing  ; 
should  come  at  the  end  of  four  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  years  from  the  issue  of  an  edict  to  rebuild 
Jerusalem  ;  should  have  a  forerunner  strongly  re- 
sembling Elijah  ;  should  be  of  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
the  family  of  David,  and  city  of  Bethlehem  ;  should 
do  His  first  preaching  in  Galilee  ;  should  announce 
Himself  the  Messiah ;  should  be  a  man  of  sorrows, 
despised,  rejected,  put  to  death,  put  to  death  with 
the  wicked  and  entombed  with  the  rich. 

Now  look  at  the  fulfillment.  Twelve  years  after 
the  birth  of  Jesus,  Judaea  was  reduced  to  a  Roman 
province,  and  has  never  since  had  a  ruler  of  her 
own.  The  temple  was  yet  standing,  though  had  He 
appeared  a  few  years  later  it  would  not  have  been. 


200  THREE  PROPHECIES. 

From  the  twentieth  year  of  Artaxerxes,  who  gave 
the  edict  to  rehuild  Jerusalem,  to  the  crucifixion, 
are,  in  round  numbers,  threescore  and  nine  weeks  — 
four  hundred  and  eighty-three  years.  John  the 
Baptist  prepared  the  way  of  Jesus  in  the  spirit  and 
power,  the  rough  strengtli  and  energy  of  Elijali  ; 
His  lineage  and  place  of  birth  were  according  to  pre- 
diction ;  according  to  prediction  the  first  preacliing, 
the  scorn,  the  persecution,  the  rejection,  the  death, 
the  burial  —  facts  which  were  never  denied  by  the 
early  Jews. 

No  room  here  for  the  supposition  of  happy  conjec- 
tures and  accidental  coincidences  !  Save  Jesus,  there 
was  no  person  who  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah,  or 
suffered  as  such,  till  long  after  the  departure  of  the 
scepter  from  Judah,  the  destruction  of  the  temple, 
and  the  threescore  and  nine  weeks  of  Daniel.  Of 
all  mankind  Jesus  is  the  only  person  whom  all  these 
predictions  suit.  Even  less  than  the  cases  of  Tyre 
and  Babylon  can  this  of  Jesus  be  explained  on  the 
basis  of  fortunate  guessing  and  chance  agreement. 
But  Thomas  Paine  rises  in  his  place  and  says, 
"  This  is  no  solution  of  ours  ;  we  have  a  better 
one,  most  natural  and  satisfactory.  How  easy  for 
some  Jew  who  happened  to  find  himself  a  native  of 
Bethlehem,  and  a  descendant  of  David,  and  living 
about  the  time  to  which  the  Old  Testament  had 
ventured  to  point,  to  conceive  the  idea  of  passing 
himself  off  as  the  person  predicted  and  get  put  to 
death  for  his  pains ! "  But  will  Paine  tell  us  whether 


MESSIAH.  201 

an  impostor  is  likely  to  set  out  to  personate  such  a 
spiritual  and  sorrowful  Messiah  as  the  prophets  pre- 
dicted ?  Will  he  tell  us  whether  the  Jews  would 
have  despised  and  rejected  Him  had  He  come  in 
the  guise  of  a  secular  and  conquering  prince  ?  He 
knows  liistory;  he  knoAvs  the  Jews;  he  knows  also 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  always  claimed  to  be  only 
the  meek  and  sufferino;  Head  of  a  kingdom  not 
of  this  world.  Let  him  answer  these  questions 
to  the  Reason  whose  Age  he  celebrates  and  whose 
honor  he  drowns  in  his  cups.  And  when  he  is 
about  it,  will  he  not  tell  us  further,  how  it  hap- 
pened that  the  passing  away  of  the  scepter,  and 
the  destruction  of  the  temple,  and  the  comple- 
tion of  the  four  hundred  and  eighty-three  years 
managed  to  occur  in  the  life  of  one  man  ?  Will  he 
tell  us  how  many  ambitious  impostors  have  lived  and 
died  like  Jesus  Christ  ?  Will  he  tell  us  what  Jesus 
would  have  gained,  that  a  wicked  man  cares  for, 
had  he  gained  all  He  asked  ?  Ah,  let  this  man 
Paine  stand  up  and  protest  by  Collins  and  Voltaire, 
that,  of  all  pretenders  he  ever  met  with,  this  same 
Jesus  is  the  most  anomalous  and  unaccountable  ! 
Let  him  go  further.  In  a  sudden  flash  of  clear 
honest  conviction  let  him  declare  that  Jesus  was  no 
pretender,  that  the  laws  of  human  nature  and  the 
teachings  of  history  and  the  instincts  of  conscience  all 
pronounce  the  thing  incredible.  I  declare  it  in  his 
stead.  Jesus  was  the  veritable  Christ.  Those  were 
real  prophecies  which  spake  of  him  so  circumstan- 


202  THREE  PROPHECIES. 

tially  centuries  before  His  birth.  Isaiah,  Daniel, 
Malachi,  and  one  far  more  ancient  than  these, 
patriarclial  Jacob,  were  the  inspired  men  that  all 
learned  and  civilized  nations  that  ever  fairly  consid- 
ered them  have  always  supposed  them  to  be.  From 
Tyre,  from  Babylon,  from  the  Son  of  Mary,  we 
accept  the  testimony.  The  one  plunges  headlong 
from  her  sea-throne  into  nihility  ;  and  her  last  word 
is,  Thus  spake  the  prophets.  Another  lies  putres- 
cent and  vulture-flapped  and  outcast  of  all  nations; 
ajid  the  giant  corpse  ceases  not  to  repeat  from  age 
to  age,  in  mute  thunder,  Thus  spake  the  prophets. 
And  Thou,  Son  of  man,  as  born,  living,  dying  — 
passing  beautiful  in  thy  human  relationships  and 
heavenly  works,  in  thy  crowns  of  goodness  and 
crosses  of  trial  —  Thou  reachest  our  ears  with  a  yet 
more  majestic  volume  of  sound,  while  still  re})eating. 
Thus  spake  the  prophets !  Even  so,  for  the  holy 
men  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
There  are  other  prophecies  nearly  or  quite  as 
striking  as  those  which  have  been  examined  —  par- 
ticularly those  relating  to  the  Jews,  to  Egypt,  and 
to  Papal  Rome.  I  have  given  three  as  specimens 
of  the  whole.  Examine  the  whole  at  your  leisure, 
and  see  how  worthy  of  faith  is  that  great  Biblical 
Religion,  which,  compacted  into  a  unit,  offers  in  be- 
half of  itself  such  a  broad  seal  of  authentication  in 
fulfilled  prophecy.  Such  a  seal  validates  at  once 
both  Theism  and  Christianity.  .  It  affirms  in  the 
same  breath  a  God,  a  written  message  from  Him, 


SUMMING   UP.  203 

and  that  message  centering  in  Jesus  Christ.  I 
liope  there  are  none  here  who  need  this  witness 
in  order  to  faith  ;  but  I  know  there  are  some  here 
whose  faith  needs  to  be  pushed  by  it  into  affecting 
vividness  and  busy  practice.  And  full  surely  do 
I  know  that  in  view  of  the  one  argument  from 
prophecy,  when  carefully  weighed,  all  present  in 
this  assembly  ought  to  be  able  to  lay  their  hands  on 
their  hearts  and  devoutly  say  with  me  this  Apos- 
tles' Creed :  — 

I  believe  in  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of 
heaven  and  earth :  and  in  Jesus  Clirist  His  only  son 
our  Lord  ;  who  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  suffered  under  Pontius 
Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead,  and  buried;  the  third 
day  He  rose  from  the  dead  ;  He  ascended  into 
Heaven  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father  Almighty  ;  from  thence  He  shall  come  to 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  Holy  General 
Church  ;  the  Communion  of  saints  ;  the  forgiveness 
of  sins ;  the  resurrection  of  the  body  ;  and  the  life 
everlasting.     Amen. 


XI. 

AN      ■ 

INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 


XI.     An  Incredible  Imposture. 

1.  THE    MEN 207 

2.  WHAT   TO   CHOOSE 209 

3.  THE   MOST    IRKSOME  ? 2IO 

4.  THE   MOST   DANGEROUS.'' 212 

5.  THE   LEAST    LIKELY  TO   SUCCEED  ? 215 

6.  THE   LEAST  GAINFUL   IF   SUCCESSFUL?  .  .  .  21/ 

7.  WELL? 219 


AN  INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 

TF  the  Christian  Religion  is  a  mere  fable,  it  cer- 

tainly  is  a  very  cunningly  devised  one.     There  ^ 

is  so  much  coherence  about  the  system,  it  includes 
so  many  great  moral  discoveries,  it  is  so  incompar- 
ably superior  both  as  a  theory  and  as  a  practice  to 
everything  else  of  the  kind  that  has  come  down  to 
us  from  antiquity,  that  no  reasonable  person  can  for 
a  moment  suj)pose  it  to  have  had  its  origin  in  a 
shallow  mind,  or  even  one  of  average  capacity  and 
intelligence.  The  contrivers  of  the  Christian  Relig- 
ion, whatever  else  they  may  have  lacked,  certainly 
did  not  lack  great  sense  and  genius.  Theirs  is  no 
ordinary  fable,  but  one  of  the  world's  masterpieces. 
Further,  if  the  Christian  Religion  is  a  fable,  its 
contrivers  were  not  only  very  intelligent  men  but 
also  very  wicked  men.  Having  laboriously  fabri- 
cated the  system  themselves,  from  beginning  to  end, 
they  were  perfectly  sure  it  was  not  Divine.  Having 
never  wrought  a  single  miracle  in  support  of  it,  they 
knew  perfectly  that  they  had  never  wrought  any. 
And  yet  these  men  passed  their  lives  in  pretending 
to  work  miracles,  and  in  trying  to  persuade  men 
that  the  man-devised  religion  was  God's  own.  They 
called  God  to  witness  that  it  was  so.     They  staked 


208  AN  INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 

their  souls  on  it.  Still  worse,  they  called  their 
leader  in  the  imposture  God,  and  paid  him  Divine 
honor,  and  required  all  others  to  do  t)ie  same. 
They  hved  and  died  and  went  to  possible  judgment, 
still  clinging  to  these  crimes.  Not  satisfied  with 
this  wholesale  attempt  to  swindle  their  own  times 
into  falsehood  and  idolatry,  they  committed  their 
story  and  system  to  writing,  and  sent  it  down  to  do 
what  it  might  toward  cheating  all  times  to  come. 
All  this  they  did  while*  having  great  religious  light, 
and  while  denouncina  damnation  ao-aiust  whom- 
soever  loveth  and  maketh  a  lie.  That  they  did  all 
this  is  proved  by  uniform  tradition,  and  by  the  New 
Testament — a  book  which  they  as  plainly  indorsed, 
prompted,  or  wrote,  as  Tacitus  did  his  history,  and 
which  confessedly  gives  with  substantial  correctness 
the  teachings  and  claims  of  the  founders  of  Chris- 
tianity. Scarcely  any  language  is  too  severe  to 
characterize  such  men.  They  were  unblushing  and 
unrelenting  hypocrites  ;  they  were  gross,  system- 
atic, life-long  liars  ;  they  were  deliberate,  daily  per- 
jurers ;  they  were  conscious,  heaven-dariiig  idola- 
ters. Their  lives  and  deaths  were  one  enormous 
falsehood  and  blasphemy.  If  it  is  true  that  Chris- 
tianity is  a  ftible,  then  we  are  sure  that  its  contriv- 
ers must  be  classed,  not  only  among  the  craftiest, 
but  also  among  the  worst  of  men. 

Now  I  have  a  question  to  ask.  I  would  like  to 
know  what  sort  of  a  religious  system  such  persons 
would   be  likely  to  frame.     They  have  concluded, 


WHAT  TO  CHOOSE.  209 

say,  to  turn  religious  impostors.  They  are  now 
sitting  down  to  determine  what  particular  shape 
their  imposture  shall  take  ;  what  particular  system 
they  shall  try  to  put  off  on  the  world  as  Divine. 
They  can  think  of  a  great  many  systems  —  hun- 
dreds of  them.  Now,  of  these  conceivable  systems, 
which  will  they  be  most  likel}''  to  take  ?  Remember 
they  are  crafty  and  bad  men ,  very  crafty  and  very 
bad  —  men  governed  wholly  by  passion  and  policy. 
I  ask.  What  sort  of  a  religious  scheme  will  persons 
of  this  stamp  choose  for  their  imposture  ?  Will  it  be 
the  one  most  of  all  opposed  to  their  governing  prin- 
ciples ?  Will  it  be  the  system  which  is  at  once  the 
most  irksome  to  their  feelings  ;  the  most  dangerous 
to  their  persons ;  the  least  likely  to  succeed ;  ami 
the  least  rewarding,  if  successful,  in  such  things  as 
bad  men  desire  ?  Your  quick  reply  is.  Of  course 
not.  You  do  not  wish  a  moment  to  consider  what 
answer  to  give.  You  know  at  once  that  for  them 
to  make  such  a  choice  as  that  would  be  as  much 
against  the  laws  of  Nature,  would  be  as  much  of  a 
miracle,  as  it  would  be  for  a  stone  to  move  up  in- 
stead of  down  when  left  free  in  the  air.  Instead  of 
such  a  system  they  would  certainly  choose  just  the 
reverse  —  the  one  that  seemed  to  them  likely  to 
minister  most  largely  to  their  passions  and  selfish 
policy  with  the  least  risk,  delay,  and  inconvenience 
to  themselves — the  one  whose  propagation  prom- 
ised to  be  the  least  irksome  to  their  feelings,  the 
least  threatening  to  their  safety,  the  most  likely  to 
u 


210  AN  INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 

succeed,  and  the  mos.t  rewarding  if  successful  in 
such  things  as  unprincipled  men  desire  most.  There 
have  been  several  scores  of  religious  impostors, 
among  them  some  twenty  false  Christs ;  and  in  tlie 
whole  number  there  cannot  be  found  one  whose 
scheme  of  imposture  plainly  took  no  counsel  of  his 
passions  or  his  policy,  but  was  at  tlie  outset,  evi- 
dently to  himself,  the  most  opposed  of  all  possible 
schemes  to  his  gratifications  and  selfish  interests. 

And  now,  my  hearers,  with  the  aid  of  these 
])remises  am  I  not  able  to  construct  for  you  an  un- 
answerable argument  for  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
Relifrion  ?  It  is  altogether  incredible  that  shrewd 
and  wicked  men,  setting  out  to  propagate  a  religion, 
and  having  an  indefinite  number  of  religious  systems 
to  choose  from,  should  have  chosen  that  given  in 
the  New  Testament.  It  is  impossible,  as  human 
nature  is,  that  such  men  should  have  chosen  such  a 
system  to  propagate.  For,  it  must  have  been  plain 
to  them  at  the  outset  that  of  all  conceivable  relig- 
ious systems  this  was  the  least  fitted  to  meet  the 
demands  of  their  policy  or  their  passions :  from  the 
outset  it  must  have  been  as  plain  to  them  as  day 
that  of  all  schemes  of  religious  imposture  possible  to 
them  this  would  be  the  most  irksome  and  dancjerous 
to  them  in  the  propagation,  the  least  likely  to  suc- 
ceed, and  the  least  rewarding  to  them  if  success- 
ful.    Let  me  now  proceed  to  show  this. 

1.  It  must  have  been  perfectly  plain  to  those  men, 
from  the  beginning,  that  they  could  not  adopt  a 


THE  MOST  IRKSOME  i  211 

religious   scheme  whose   propagation  would  be    so 
irksome  to  their  feelings  as  Christianity. 

The  Christiaji  Religion  gives  no  countenance  to 
sin  in  any  shape  or  in  any  person.  It  curbs  all  pas- 
sions and  denounces  all  vices.  A  life  regulated 
strictly  according  to  its  rules  would  be  gloriously 
pure  and  bright.  This  cannot  be  denied.  Now  the 
propagators  of  such  a  system  would  of  course  be 
under  the  necessity  of  appearing  to  conform  to  it 
very  rigidly  themselves.  They  must  seem  models 
of  pure  and  noble  conduct.  Otherwise  men  would 
be  sure  to  discredit  them,  and  could  plead  as 
authority  for  doing  so  the  teachings  of  the  system 
itself.  All  their  lives  long,  with  the  watchful  eyes 
of  multitudes  on  them,  they  must  walk  with  the 
most  shining  outward  propriety.  They  must  seem 
pure  and  meek  and  disinterested ;  temperate,  unre- 
vengeful,  unambitious,  uncovetous,  devout;  must 
seem  to  be  what  Jesus  and  His  apostles  are  claimed 
to  have  been.  Now,  to  lead  such  lives  would  not, 
indeed,  be  very  irksome  to  really  righteous  men  — 
men  whose  hearts  are  rich  as  any  placer  with 
holy  principles.  But  far  otherwise  with  grossly 
wicked  men,  such  as  the  founders  of  Christianity 
were,  if  they  were  impostors.  To  such  it  would 
be  a  perpetual  crucifixion.  To  such  it  would  be 
constant  vigilance,  constant  self-restraint,  constant 
spurring  up  of  themselves  to  what  is  essentially  and 
intensely  disagreeable.  And  these  Jews  must  have 
plainly  seen  at  the  outset  that  it  would  be  so  ;  and 


212  AN  INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 

that  among  all  the  schemes  they  could  devise  not 
one  would  place  them  under  such  galling  restraints, 
as  long  as  they  should  live,  as  this  same  Christianity. 
A  system  like  that  of  the  Pagans  around  would 
allow  their  lives  to  match  freely  with  their  wicked 
hearts ;  one  like  that  of  Mohammed  would  leave 
their  passions  and  their  policy  large  liberty ;  one 
such  as  the  Jews  had  framed  out  of  Moses  by 
glosses  and  Rabbinical  traditions  would  allow  at 
least  their  pride  and  ambition  and  avarice  and  re- 
venge to  walk  abroad  in  open  day ;  but  this  strict 
Christianity  would  grant  them  no  license  whatever, 
and  even  refuse  to  be  propagated  unless  they  would 
cut  off  all  spotted  indulgences  and  live  the  lives  of 
saints. 

2.  It  must  also  have  been  perfectly  plain  to  these 
men,  from  the  beginning,  that  they  could  not  adopt 
a  religious  scheme  whose  propagation  would  be  so 
dangerous  to  them  as  that  of  Christianity. 

The  Jews  have  always  been  intolerant,  exclusive, 
and  expectant  of  a  political  Messiah.  At  the  time 
when  Christianity  came,  it  was  their  cherished  idea 
that  the  predicted  Christ  would  reign  in  outward 
glory  as  their  king,  defeat  all  their  enemies,  and 
raise  them  to  a  preeminence  among  the  nations  more 
proud  than  they  had  ever  attained  in  their  palmiest 
days.  They  were  wedded  to  the  traditions  which 
contradicted  and  suppressed  Moses  more  than  they 
were  to  Moses  himself.  But  Christianity  set  itself 
stoutly  against  all  these  cherished  faiths  and  preju- 


THE  MOST  DANGEROUS?  213 

dices.  It  gave  no  quarter  to  the  unscriptural  tra- 
ditions. It  acknowledged  in  the  Messiah  only  a 
spiritual  and  suffering  Deliverer.  It  offered  its 
blessings  as  freely  to  Gentile  as  to  Jew,  and  called 
on  the  children  of  Abraham  to  recoo-nize  the  sub- 
stantial  equality  of  the  circumcision  and  of  the  un- 
circumcision  before  God.  Such  a  scheme  as  this, 
it  was  easy  to  see,  would  awaken  intense  opposition 
in  the  Jewish  mind,  especially  as  it  included  no 
bait  of  worldly  advantage  whatever.  And  as  to  the 
Gentile  world,  still  worse  was  to  be  anticipated 
from  it.  The  nations  were  broken  up  into  castes  ; 
those  who  held  the  |)ower  and  the  riches  and  the 
honor  would  naturally  shrink  from  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  universal  brotherhood-of  men.  The 
nations  were  filled  with  the  lust  and  habit  of  re- 
venge, rapine,  and  war ;  they  would  loathe  the 
Christian  precepts  of  meekness,  contentment,  jus- 
tice, and  peace.  The  nations  were  idolaters  ;  they 
would  find  in  Christianity  an  unsparing  breaker  of 
all  their  choice  and  worshipped  images  —  a  grinder 
to  powder  of  the  whole  mythology  that  came  down 
from  the  fathers,  and  sung  in  poets,  and  reigned  in 
priesthoods,  and  breathed  grateful  perfume  from  al- 
tars, and  shone  in  the  marbles  and  gold  of  temples, 
and  satisfied  every  man  with  a  god  after  his  own 
heart.  The  nations  were  formalists  and  ritualists  ; 
devoted  to  the  external ;  men  of  processions,  and 
robes,  and  sacrifices,  and  postures ;  they  would  find 
in  Christianity  the  severe  simplicity  of  a  spiritual 


214  AN  INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 

worship,  very  bare  of  forms,  and  barer  still  of  per- 
missions to  trust  in  them.  The  nations  were  gross 
and  sensual,  steeped  to  the  lips  in  all  manner  of  vice, 
wallowing  like  swine  in  the  worst  forms  of  corruption 
and  debauchery  ;  they  would  find  in  Christianity  the 
stern  censor,  the  unsparing  denouncer,  the  bitter  and 
tormentinor  threatener  of  their  indulgences.  ^'  Filled 
with  all  unrighteousness,  fornication,  wickedness, 
covetousness,  maliciousness  ;  full  of  envy,  murder, 
deceit,  malignity  ;  whisperers,  backbiters,  despiteful, 
proud,  covenant-breakers,  without  natural  affection, 
implacable,  unmerciful,"  as  they  were  —  such  a 
religious  system  as  that  of  the  New  Testament  would 
chafe  and  smite  them  at  every  turn,  would  be  as 
distasteful  to  them  as  gall  and  wormwood.  In  a 
w^ord,  no  scheme  which  could  be  devised  would  run 
so  strongly  counter  to  the  spirit,  wishes,  and  habits 
of  the  age  as  this.  An  attempt  to  propagate  it 
would  be  really  an  attempt  to  tear  down  all  that 
men  most  clung  to  in  the  views  and  practices  and 
institutions  of  the  times.  Such  an  attempt  was 
certain  to  rouse  against  those  who  should  make  it 
a  storm  of  feeling  and  persecution  of  the  severest 
kind.  It  required  no  extraordinary  sagacity  to  fore- 
see for  them  exiles,  dungeons,  stakes,  scaffolds, 
crucifixions.  What  actually  occurred  might  have 
been  anticipated  by  any  sensible  man  —  an  Israel 
howling  around  their  tribunals.  Crucify  him,  crucify 
him ;  a  Gentiledom  reeking  with  ten  general  perse- 
cutions, and  with  the  life  of  almost  every  Christian 


THE  LEAST  LIKELY  TO  SUCCEED.         215 

leader.  One  could  not  contrive  a  system  better 
suited  to  rasp  and  exasperate  both  the  besotted 
many  and  the  arrogant,  powerful  few  tlian  this  very 
Christianitv.  One  could  not  put  forth  a  scheme  of 
relicrion  which  all  classes  of  those  scandalous  times 
would  be  so  unwilling  to  have  prevail  as  this  same 
rigid,  humbling  Christianity.  And,  I  repeat  it,  in- 
telligent impostors  must  have  seen  this ;  must  have 
foreseen  the  intense  danger  to  which  they  would 
expose  themselves  by  trying  to  establish  such  a  sys- 
tem in  an  intolerant  age  ;  while  at  the  same  time 
they  were  conscious  of  being  able  to  contrive  a  hun- 
dred systems  less  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
and  therefore  more  safe. 

3.  It  must  also  have  been  plain  to  these  men,  at 
the  outset,  that  of  all  systems  of  religion  Avhich  they 
could  devise,  Christianity  was  the  one  least  likely  to 
succeed  in  geHing  establishment. 

It  had  nothing  whatever  of  a  worldly  nature  to 
tempt  people  to  its  acceptance.  We  have  seen 
that  it  was  fiercely  at  war  with  the  prevailing  tastes, 
opinions,  and  practice  of  the  age  when  it  appeared. 
Specially  distasteful  must  it  have  been  to  the  more 
influential  classes ;  for  their  interests  and  privileges 
were  most  intimately  wrought  into  the  old  order  of 
things,  and  must  suffer  the  most  from  its  disturbance. 
The  rich  and  noble  fattened  on  the  general  corrup- 
tion, and  rose  the  higher  the  lower  the  people  sunk. 
All  the  passions  and  policies  of  the  time  went  to 
fortify  it  against  such  a  religion  ;  and  what  had  the 


216  AN  INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 

time  besides  passions  and  policy  ?  There  was  no 
element  of  power  which  Christianity  could  press 
into  its  service  for  proselyting,  save  the  poor,  beg- 
gared, stupid  remains  of  a  Pharisaic  conscience. 
And  if,  perchance,  a  few  under  its  feeble  prompt- 
ings should  be  disposed  to  accept  the  new  and 
purer  system,  what  had  they  to  expect  but  the 
sternest  treatment  from  the  host  of  their  less  im- 
pressible companions?  The  first  converts  to  the 
imposture,  like  the  impostors  themselves,  must  lay 
their  account  with  diso-race  and  troubles  of  all 
kinds  — nay,  with  fire  and  sword.  With  no  miracles 
to  indorse  it,  with  no  sword  to  enforce  it,  with  hu- 
man nature  against  it,  with  society  and  institutions 
against  it,  witli  interest  and  education  and  passion 
against  it,  the  imposture  could  not  reasonably  be 
expected  to  make  any  progress.  If  the  ship  were 
launched  it  could  not  sail.  There  was  no  wind  from 
any  point  of  the  compass,  and  no  canvas  to  catch 
it  if  there  was.  Some  form  of  polytheism,  with  a 
plenty  of  shows  and  a  plenty  of  indulgences,  might 
win  its  way  ;  a  Mohammedanism,  with  a  naked  scim- 
eter  in  one  hand  and  a  sensual  Paradise  in  the  other, 
might  come  to  flourish  ;  even  a  modified  Judaism, 
appealing  to  the  pride  of  one  people  and  accommo- 
dating somewhat  the  prejudices  and  passions  of 
others,  might  stand  a  chance  of  considerable  success ; 
but  this  Christianity,  without  prestige,  without  robes, 
without  force,  without  indulgences,  without  miracles, 
and  even  without  truth  as  a  revelation  —  what  sue- 


THE  LEAST  REWARDING.  217 

cess  could  be  hoped  for  it  ?  A  system  less  likely  to 
succeed  could  not  have  been  contrived.  It  was 
doomed,  to  begin  with.  And,  to  begin  with,  saga- 
cious impostors  must  have  seen  it  so.  In  thinking 
over  the  various  schemes  of  deceit  they  might  ado[)t, 
it  must  at  once  have  occurred  to  them  that,  of  them 
all,  not  one  had  so  un prosperous  and  impracticable 
an  air  as  this  same  prickly  Christianity. 

4.  It  must  also  have  been  plain  to  the  founders  of 
Christianity,  from  the  beginning,  that,  of  all  possible 
religious  systems  which  they  might  try  to  establish, 
the  Christian,  if  established,  would  prove  the  least 
rewarding  in  such  things  as  bad  men  most  desire. 

What  is  the  control Hng  desire  of  such  men  ?  Is 
it  to  see  truth  triumphant  ?  Is  it  to  do  good?  On 
the  contrary  it  is  to  promote  selfish  ends,  to  gratify 
evil  passion  in  some  form.  Could  they  succeed  in 
establishing  Christianity,  how  much  would  it  do  for 
them  in  this  direction  ?  Would  it  give  them  any 
facilities  for  sinful  pleasures  ?  Would  it  gratify  their 
avarice  with  silver  and  gold?  Would  it  give  them 
outward  pomp  and  political  power?  A  successful 
Mohammedanism  would  do  this:  not  so  a  success- 
ful Christianity.  This  system  gives  a  virtual  pro- 
hibition of  selfish  ambition,  of  carnal  indulgences, 
of  secular  rule,  to  its  founders.  They  could  not  be 
Epicureans  or  generals  or  princes,  without  defying 
their  own  teachings.  "  But  they  might  have  great 
notoriety,  great  respect,  and  great  influence  :  and 
undoubtedly  bad   men  are   often    fond   of  these." 


218  AN  INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 

Yes,  but  these  they  would  liave  as  the  successful 
founders  of  any  religion.  What  bad  men  most  de- 
sire is  not  notoriety  and  influence,  but  notoriety 
and  influence  which  they  can  turn  to  a  selfish  and 
carnal  account.  And  here  such  a  religion  as  the 
Christian  would  hamper  and  thwart  its  successful 
propagators  as  no  other  would.  It  would  compel 
them  to  use  their  fame  and  influence  apparently  for 
pure  and  benevolent  ends :  the  moment  they  did 
otherwise  their  own  teachings  would  proclaim  them 
impostors.  Shrewd,  capable  men  as  they  were, 
they  must  have  foreseen  this.  No  thunders  out  of 
heaven  were  needed  to  tell  them.  As  worldly,  self- 
ish, unprincipled  men,  they  must  instinctively  have 
felt  that  they  could  not  establish  any  scheme  of  re- 
ligion which  would  prove  so  unprofitable  to  them  as 
this  as  yet  hypothetical  Christianity.  In  consider- 
ing what  delusion,  among  the  many  delusions  con- 
ceivable, they  should  select  to  propagate  for  their 
selfish  and  wicked  ends,  a  single  glance  would  settle 
tliat  no  system  if  successfully  carried  out  was  likely 
to  net  them  so  little  that  they  cared  for  as  the  sys- 
tem that  now  bears  the  name  of  Christ. 

My  argument  is  now  complete.  I  have  shown  that 
the  founders  of  the  Christian  religion,  if  impostors, 
were  exceedingly  bad  as  well  as  capable  men.  I  have 
shown  that  to  such  men  no  religious  system  would 
be  at  once  so  irksome  in  the  working,  so  dangerous 
in  the  propagation,  so  little  likely  to  succeed,  and  so 
little  rewarding  if  successful,  as  that  which  is  found 


WELL  9  2L9 

in  the  New  Testament.  It  is  plain  also  that  they 
must  have  abundantly  known  this  from  the  very 
commencement  of  their  enterprise.  Did  those  men 
act,  not  only  without  motive,  but  against  all  motive  ? 
Did  tliey  laboriously  palm  off  upon  the  world  a  sys- 
tem which  they  knew  to  be  false,  and  as  clearly  knew 
to  be  more  squarely  opposed  than  any  other  both  to 
the  tastes  of  the  age  and  to  the  objects  they  had  in 
view  in  undertakino;  it  ?  Let  those  believe  this  who 
can.  Of  incredible  tliinjjs  what  is  more  incredible? 
Believe  me,  there  would  have  been  no  Christian  Re- 
ligion in  the  world  had  it  been  left  with  impostors 
to  announce  and  establish  it.  They  would  never 
have  taken  the  trouble  to  do  it.  With  so  many 
more  easy,  congenial,  popular,  and  profitable  sys- 
tems at  hand,  they  would  have  cast  this  aside,  after 
a  single  glance,  as  out  of  the  question.  Christianity, 
tlierofore,  is  no  contrivance  of  man.  It  is  no  cun- 
ningly devised  fable.  Its  God  is  real,  and  it  is 
really  from  God.  He  framed  and  established  it ; 
and  we  on  these  Sabbath  days  speak  and  hear  a 
Gospel  that  was  born  in  heaven,  and  brought  to  us 
by  heavenly  hands. 

My  hearers,  you  have  now  listened  to  an  argu- 
ment in  behalf  of  as  important  a  statement  as  has 
ever  been  made  in  your  hearing.  No  matter  how 
many  years  you  have  lived,  nor  where  you  have 
been,  nor  how  carefully  you  have  sought  to  catch 
wise  and  weiMitv  words.  Never  did  you  hear  a 
sentence  that  was  heavier  with  importance  than  this 


220  AN  INCREDIBLE  IMPOSTURE. 

brief  one,  The  Christian  Religion  is  true. 
These  few  words  outweigh  all  the  arts  and  sciences. 
In  one  breath  they  affirm  both  Theism  and  Chris- 
tianity. If  we  deny  them  and  keep  to  the  denial, 
if  we  doubt  them  and  keep  to  the  doubt,  we  shall 
be  castaways  from  God.  If  we  accept  them  with 
a  workinor  faith  we  shall  inherit  an  eternal  kingdom. 
Is  such  faith  involuntary  ?  Nay,  it  comes  surely  to 
every  one  who  will  candidly  and  patiently  inquire 
after  the  truth  :  not  in  full  stature  at  first,  not  at 
once  in  all  cases,  not  all  at  once  often,  but  aft^r  a 
while  and  by  degrees,  according  to  the  honesty  and 
earnestness  of  the  search.  On  this  fact  rests  the 
justice  of  making  such  great  issues  depend  on  an 
intellectual  reception  of  Christianity. 

The  Christian  Religion  is  true.  Then  it  de- 
serves to  be  enthroned  as  a  king  in  this  community. 
Every  person  should  be  willing  to  take  the  law  from 
it ;  nay,  more  than  willing.  It  should  preside  over 
all  business  and  over  all  pleasure.  It  should  nullify 
all  fiiiths,  customs,  and  laws  which  conflict  with  it. 
Old  and  young  should  ponder  it  diligently  and 
reverently.  It  should  be  everybody's  text-book. 
Every  home  should  be  its  sanctuary,  and  every  heart 
its  royal  pavilion.  After  its  words  none  should 
speak  again,  and  its  speech  should  drop  upon  us. 

Ah,  how  {ar  is  it  from  being  so !  In  how  many 
of  our  families  does  it  bear  no  rule  !  How  many 
enterprises  make  no  account  of  it — how  many 
hearts  are  careless  or  averse  to  it !    And  yet,  if  there 


WELL?  221 

is  anything  great,  valuable,  and  authoritative  in  the 
world,  it  is  this  same  system  of  faith  and  practice 
which  reveals  Infinite  God  and  which  Infinite  God 
has  revealed  to  us.  None  will  trifle  with  it  or  neg- 
lect it  with  impunity.  None  will  forsake  it  and  dis- 
obey it  without  seeino;  cause  to  regret  their  miscon- 
duct  ere  long.  None  will  love  it  and  cleave  to  it 
without  soon  seeing  reason  to  rejoice  in  their  discre- 
tion. God  will  stand  by  His  religion.  In  due  time 
He  will  make  demonstration  of  His  regard  for  it  in 
every  man's  experience.  The  communities,  the  in- 
dividuals, who  honor  it  He  will  honor.  They  who 
submit  to  it  shall  rule ;  they  who  enthrone  it  shall 
be  enthi'oned.  The  patient  hearers  of  the  Word, 
and  brave  doers  of  it,  shall  find  that  Christianity  is 
not  cast  upon  the  world  by  its  Father  as  a  found- 
ling. He  will  acknowledge  His  paternity.  His  eye 
watches,  His  hand  guards  His  child;  and  blessed 
the  man  who  shelters  and  nourishes  in  his  home  on 
earth  this  true  child  of  Heaven  ! 


XII. 

ANCIENT    WONDERS. 


XII.     Ancient  Wonders. 

1.  CREDIBLE 225 

2.  MOSAIC 229 

3.  CHRISTIAN 233 

4.  JOINT   IMPORT 247 


ANCIENT  WONDERS. 

A  MONG  natural  events  some  rise  greatly  above 
'^^  others  in  intrinsic  greatness  and  in  the  great- 
ness of  the  causes  producing  them.  Are  tliere  not 
some  events  much  greater  still  ? 

I  think  so.  The  air  of  all  times  and  countries  is 
filled  with  rumors  of  supernatural  occurrences.  We 
meet  everywhere  echoes  which  might  well  have 
been  born  of  the  most  wonderful  voices  ;  every- 
where odors  which  might  well  have  come  from  the 
distant  swaying  of  the  most  royal  and  perfumed  of 
queenly  robes. 

Nay,  there  are  events  taking  place  even  now, 
which,  to  say  the  least,  it  is  very  hard  to  bring 
clearly  within  the  class  of  the  purely  natural.  Is 
no  one  of  you  ever  at  a  loss  to  see  how  mere  animal 
parentage  can  account  for  the  bodies  and  souls  that 
are  constantly  being  born  ;  to  see  how  it  is  possible 
for  anything  in  a  way  of  mere  Nature  to  produce  its 
equal,  much  more  its  superior  ?  Nay,  do  we  not 
know  of  a  science  which,  at  the  lips  of  the  great 
majority  of  its  most  gifted  and  trusted  students, 
declares  that  the  long  stretch  of  organic  life  on  this 
globe  has  been  many  times  totally  broken  and  as 
many  times  renewed  by  that  greatest  of  all  marvels, 
a  sudden  creation  ? 

15 


226  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

And  then  what  a  fitting  preface  would  miracles  be 
to  such  a  system  of  religion  as  the  Biblical !  A  grand 
palace  should  have  a  grand  vestibule.  .  A  great 
monarch  should  be  preceded  by  no  common  herald. 
Whatever  else  may  be  denied  of  the  religion  of  the 
Bible  it  cannot  be  denied  that  it  is  great.  It  seeks 
the  greatest  objects,  works  b}'"  the  greatest  means, 
and  claims  some  of  the  greatest  ideas  and  literature 
and  effects  the  world  ever  saw.  Its  purpose  is  the 
virtue  and  salvation  of  mankind.  It  offers  to  secure 
this  purpose  by  a  Divine  atonement,  and  by  a  con- 
stant miracle  of  renewal  and  sanctification  in  the 
hearts  of  men  through  the  Holy  Spirit.  Yes,  it 
would  be  a  fitness  —  sucli  a  fitness  as  we  see  that 
Nature  loves,  and  such  as  we  intuitively  recognize 
as  belonging  to  truth  —  were  this  great  temple 
fronted  by  a  porch  of  signs  and  wonders.  Yes,  it 
would  be  but  a  graceful  harmony —  like  the  accords 
in  music,  or  the  symmetries  of  physical  beauty  — 
were  this  pure  and  lofty  faith  of  Christendom  found 
poising  itself,  in  part  at  least,  on  such  a  foundation 
of  elect  and  precious  stones  as  the  marvels  which 
transcend  Nature. 

But  some  are  disposed  to  object.  They  tell  me 
that  miracles  have  never  been  needed  and  so  have 
never  occurred ;  that  an  Infinite  Being  could  have 
so  made  Nature  as  to  secure  all  His  ends  by  natural 
laws  alone ;  that  He  who  actually  secured  by  these 
means  the  greater  part  of  His  ends,  could,  with 
omniscience  and  omnipotence  to  help   Him,  have 


CREDIBLE.  227 

managed  to  secure  by  tliem  the  small  remainder. 
I  happen,  liowever,  to  know  that  not  even  an  In- 
finite Being  can  work  impossibilities  in  the  nature 
of  things ;  and  that  among  these  impossibles  may 
well  be  that  of  securing  from  mere  Nature  as  com- 
plete  results  as  from  Nature  and  the  Supernatural, 
togetlier. 

They  tell  me  tliat  miracles,  in  their  very  nature, 
are  amendments  —  mere  supplements  and  patches 
to  eke  out  a  faulty  system  —  attempts  to  correct 
what  is  too  long  or  too  short,  too  fast  or  too  slow, 
too  weak  or  too  strong ;  in  short,  such  a  thing  as 
could  never  have  come  from  a  perfect  Being.  I 
happen,  however,  to  know  that  great  deeds  are  not 
necessarily  after-thoughts.  They  may  enter  into  the 
original  plan  of  their  author,  with  all  smallest  mat- 
ters. And  why  may  not  miracles  have  entered  into 
a  great  primal  plan  of  creation  which  was  never  for 
a  moment  supposed  to  be  complete  without  them  ? 
In  their  nature,  they  are  no  more  amendments 
than  a  pendulum  is  an  amendment  to  a  clock,  or  a 
roof  to  a  house,  or  the  Winter  Palace  to  St.  Peters- 
burg. Did  not  the  builder  from  the  first  propose 
the  whole  ? 

Above  all,  they  tell  me  that  miracles  are  contrary 
to  experience.  I  happen,  however,  to  know  some 
things  in  the  way  of  science  that  make  light  of  such 
an  objection.  Grant  that  miracles  are  contrary, 
not  only  to  our  personal  experience,  but  also  to  that 
of  all  our  predecessors  for  some  thousands  of  years. 


228  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

What  then  ?  Does  it  follow  that  they  have  never 
occurred,  or  even  that  they  cannot  be  known  with 
scientific  sureness  to  have  occurred?  Nothing  of 
the  sort.  We  certainly  know  of  real  geological 
wonders  which  have  never  once  been  observed 
actually  occurring  during  the  entire  history  of  our 
race,  thus  far  ;  we  certainly  know  of  real  astronom- 
ical wonders,  sure  to  occur  after  many  ages,  but  of 
which  all  previous  human  history  will  not  have  seen 
a  solitary  instance,  but  rather  constant  facts  of  di- 
rectly the  opposite  bearing.  For  example.  Many 
ages  hence  the  moon  will  begin  to  recede  from  the 
earth.  That  will  be  an  event  totally  unprecedented 
in  the  history  of  mankind.  Nay,  it  will  be  an  event 
directly  the  opposite  of  what  has  always  been  oc- 
curring. From  long  before  man,  down  to  that  re- 
mote future,  the  moon,  instead  of  retreating  from 
the  earth,  will  have  been  steadily  approaching  it ; 
and  were  the  race  on  that  distant  day  to  reason 
merely  from  what  has  been  within  its  time  to  what 
will  be  on  the  morrow,  it  would  confidently  say 
that  the  satellite  will  be  still  approaching.-  But 
it  would  be  a  mistake.  On  that  very  morrow  the 
lunar  orbit  will  begin  to  expand,  —  will  do  a  thing 
which  it  has  never  yet  done  in  all  the  human  an- 
nals. And,  what  is  more,  it  will  be  a  thing  which, 
with  the  help  of  a  little  astronomy,  might  have  been 
known  with  supreme  certainty.  We  know  it  with 
supreme  certainty  to-day  —  thanks  to  the  great  ob- 
servations of  Halley,  and  the  greater  mathematics 


MOSAIC.  229 

of  La  Place.  And  many  other  things  of  the  same 
sort  we  know  —  oreoloo-ical  arid  astronomical  —  ab- 
solutely  sure  to  occur,  though  contrary  to  the  whole 
previous  human  experience. 

When,  then,  I  find  the  Scriptures  telling  profusely 
of  great  events  which  owed  their  origin  directly  to 
Divine  will  and  power,  I  am  by  no  means  stumbled. 
If  there  is  a  God,  I  see  no  reason  why  He,  any 
more  than  myself,  should  confine  Himself  to  indi- 
rect action.  And  I  think  I  do  see  how  He  mio^ht 
draw  Himself  far  nearer  to  the  thoughts  and  sensi- 
bilities of  mankind  were  He  to  insert  His  own  hand 
occasionally  in  the  scheme  of  Nature  and  visibly 
overrule  its  ordinary  goings,  even  as  we  ourselves 
do  in  our  small  way  for  our  small  occasions.  In 
view  of  the  traditions  of  the  world,  in  view  of  the 
marvels  of  science  and  of  daily  experience,  and  in 
view  of  the  essential  fitness  of  things,  I  see  no 
reason  why  a  broad  highway  is  not  open  on  which 
faith  in  miracles  may  call  about  it  abundant  evidence, 
and  freely  travel  into  all  the  high  places  of  reason 
in  this-reasoninor  aoje. 

The  Bible  miracles  chiefiy  belong  to  two  great 
groups :  the  Mosaic  and  the  Christian.  Let  us  con- 
sider these  groups    separately. 

I.  The  Mosaic  Miracles. 

It  is  granted  by  all  —  save  the  most  fantastic  of 
skeptics,  whom  your  English  common  sense  would 
not  tolerate  for  a  moment —  that  the  Hebrews  were 
once  slaves  in   Egypt ;  that  they  came  out  under 


230  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

tlie  leadership  of  one  Moses ;  that  this  Moses 
establislied  what  is  known  as  the  Mosaic  Economy, 
and  of  course  was  beh'eved  in  as  to  his  sayings  and 
writings  by  the  Hebrews  of  liis  time  ;  that  the  Pen- 
tateuch with  its  account  of  the  exodus  is  in  the 
main  his  sayings  and  writings.  I  say,  this  is  univer- 
sally conceded  by  those  whom  you  would  consider 
sane  men.  Tlie  monuments  and  traditions  require 
it.  The  grounds  on  which  our  best  history  rests 
require  it.  We  have  no  history  at  all  if  the  par- 
ticulars I  have  mentioned  are  not  history.  Your 
Washington  may  be  a  fable.  Yoin*  Mayflower  may 
be  a  dream.  Your  Columbus  may  be  a  legend. 
Why  not? 

Now  tlie  books  of  Moses  give  us  the  following 
account.  They  say  that  tlie  Hebrews  witnessed 
ten  general  plagues  sent  on  Egypt  by  means  of 
Moses.  They  say  that,  at  the  stretching  forth  of 
his  rod,  a  way  was  opened  through  the  Red  Sea; 
and  that  a  whole  nation  actually  marched  by  that 
strange  way,  till,  from  the  further  bank,  they  saw 
the  crystal  walls  fall  and  drown  the  pursuing  army 
of  the  Egyptians.  They  say  that  a  pillar  of  cloud 
by  da}^  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night  visibly  led  the 
pilgrim  host  for  forty  years.  They  say  that,  during 
this  long  period,  their  clothing  waxed  not  old  and 
their  daily  bread  came  daily  from  heaven.  They  say 
that,  on  their  coming  to  Sinai,  God  came  down  on 
the  mount  in  foretold  majesty  of  lightnings  and 
thunders  and  earthquakes,  and   spake   His  law  in 


MOSAIC.  231 

awful  proclamation  that  sounded  through  all  the 
marshaled  millions  and  carried  dismay  to  all  their 
hearts.  They  say  many  other  things  of  a  like 
character. 

What  I  would  have  you  notice  is  that  the  en- 
tire Israel  of  that  day  must  have  known  whether 
this  account  was  true  or  not.  They  could  not  have 
passed  forty  years  in  such  a  wonderful  experience 
without  knowing  it.  And  they  could  not  have  been 
without  such  a  forty  years'  experience  without 
knowing  that  too,  to  a  perfect  certainty.  If  no 
such  plagues  were  ever  wrought  for  their  deliver- 
ance, they  knew  they  were  never  wrought.  If 
they  never  went  througli  the  Red  Sea  as  on  dry 
land,  every  soul  of  them  knew  that  they  never  did. 
If  they  had  not  been  led  by  that  intelligent  Pillar 
for  nearly  half  a  century,  they  all  to  a  man  knew 
that  they  had  not  been.  If  they  had  never  bowed 
and  quaked  before  a  quaking  and  bowing  and 
speaking  Sinai,  not  a  Hebrew  of  them  all  but  knew 
it  like  noonday.  Do  you  suppose  the  Governor  of 
Connecticut  could  persuade  us  that  by  raising  his 
hand  he  had  made  a  dry  way  for  us  across  Long 
Island  Sound,  had  actually  led  all  our  citizens  by 
that  way,  and  had  afterward  fed  us  all  by  miracle 
for  many  years,  if  he  had  not  done  so  ?  The  events 
alleged  by  Moses  were  of  such  a  nature  that  the 
senses  of  every  man,  woman,  and  child  among  the 
Hebrews  could  infallibly  judge  of  them.  A  com- 
mon man  could  judge  of  them  just  as  well  as  a  phi- 


232  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

losopher  —  the  least  among  the  thousands  of  Israel 
as  well  as  he  who  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of 
the  Egyptians.  So  it  is  a  clear  case;  Nothing 
could  be  clearer.  No  single  Hebrew  could  have 
been  deceived,  much  less  the  whole  nation.  No 
single  one  of  those  events  could  have  happened 
without  their  knowincr  it,  much  less  such  a  lono; 
course  and  great  system  of  such  events.  If  no  such 
constellation  of  miracles  ever  rained  its  glories 
about  them,  the  Hebrew  public  of  the  time  could 
never  by  any  possibility  have  been  convinced  that 
it  did.  None  but  a.  madman  would  have  tried  to 
convince  them.  In  claiming  such  an  astounding 
history  for  them  Moses  would  have  made  faitli  in 
himself  forever  impossible  ;  and  have  convicted  him- 
self in  face  of  heaven  and  earth  as  being  equally  un- 
supplied  with  principle  and  with  common  sense. 

But  Moses  did  claim  such  a  history  for  them. 
What  is  more,  he  told  them  to  their  faces  that  they 
all  believed  his  story.  He  made  this  bold  assertion 
over  and  over  again.  He  everywhere  averred 
their  full  knowledge  of  its  truth.  He  staked  his 
whole  credit  with  them  on  the  correctness  of  these 
assertions  and  assumptions.  He  averred  that  the 
people  had  accepted  at  his  hands  a  religious  system 
because  they  believed  in  him  and  his  miracles.  Of 
course  it  was  so.  It  would  be  irrational  in  the  last 
degree  to  suppose  the  contrary.  All  the  monu- 
ments and  traditions  are  against  it.  All  the  history 
we  have  is  against  it.      As  sure  as  there  is  any 


CHRISTIAN.  233 

reliable  history  in  the  world,  Israel  profoundly  be- 
lieved in  their  leader  and  in  his  miraculous  narra- 
tive. As  a  sane  man,  he  never  would  have  dared 
to  put  such  a  narrative  before  them  had  he  not  al- 
ready known  them  to  believe  the  substance  of  it. 
So  all  sane  critics  —  believers  and  unbelievers  —  feel 
and  always  have  felt.  What  more  could  we  have  ? 
'  Hence  it  is  plain  that  the  Mosaic  miracles  were 
genuine.  They  were  fully  believed  in  by  millions, 
every  one  of  whom  must  have  known  whether  they 
were  real  or  not.  And  if  they  were  real,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  righteous  and  beneficent  relio;ion  to 
which  they  testify,  with  its  God  and  revelation,  is 
true.  No  one  at  the  present  day  who  admits  the 
reality  of  such  events  as  the  cleaving  of  the  Red 
Sea  into  a  national  highway  by  the  rod  of  Moses, 
but  will  also  admit  that  those  events  carry  with 
them  the  entire  religion  of  the  Old  Testament. 

II.   The  Christian  Miracles. 

We  find  in  the  New  Testament  a  cluster  of  mirac- 
ulous accounts  not  inferior  to  the  Mosaic  in  the 
greatness  of  their  claims. 

Notice  at  the  outset  that  it  is  granted  by  all  — 
save  the  most  fantastic  and  impracticable  of  skeptics 
whom  you  and  I  would  not  for  a  moment  think  of 
heeding  —  that  there  was  such  a  person  as  Jesus  of 
Nazareth ;  that  He  had  tw^elve  special  disciples 
called  apostles  ;  and  that  these  apostles  either  wrote 
or  indorsed  the  various  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment.     These    are    historic    facts.     Otherwise   we 


234  ANCIENT  WONDERS. 

have  no  history  at  all.  We  may  throw  away  our 
Bancrofts,  and  Macaulays,  and  all  other  famous  and 
much  trusted  books  which  offer  to  return  the  Past 
for  the  instruction  , of  mankind.  "I  find,"  says 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,  "  more  sure  marks  of  authen- 
ticity in  the  Bible  than  in  any  profane  history 
whatever." 

Now  see  the  account  of  miracles  given  by  this 
apostolic  New  Testament.  It  tells  us  that  a  host 
of  angels  appeared  to  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem 
and  sang  in  their  hearing  of  the  Nativity  ;  that  a 
star,  moving  as  if  instinct  with  intelligence,  guided 
a  caravan  from  the  distant  east  to  the  infant  Jesus  ; 
that  as  Jesus  was  being  baptized  a  voice  fell  from 
heaven  on  the  ears  of  thousands  gathered  from  all 
parts  of  the  countr^^,  saying,  This  is  my  Beloved 
Son.  It  tells  us  that,  promptly  at  the  speaking  of 
a  word  or  the  lifting  of  a  finger  or  some  other  sign 
equally  insufficient  as  cause,  the  blind  received 
sight,  the  lame  walked,  the  deaf  heard,  the  dumb 
spake,  the  leapers  were  cleansed,  the  paralytics 
took  up  their  beds  and  walked,  the  madmen  became 
sane,  the  sick  were  cured  of  whatever  disease  they 
had,  the  very  dead  were  raised.  It  tells  us  that  at 
the  crucifixion  the  whole  land  was  darkened  and 
shaken  ;  that  a  terrible  angel  flashed  down  from 
heaven  in  sight  of  the  Roman  guard  about  the  sep- 
ulcher  ;  that  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead,  and  was 
seen  forty  days  among  the  apostles,  and,  on  one 
occasion,  bv'more  than  five  hundred  brethren;  that 


CHRISTIAN.  235 

He  rose  to  heaven  through  broad  day  in  view  of 
the  Tvi^elve ;  that  these  men  themselves  received 
the  gift  of  tongues  and  the  power  of  working  mir- 
acles, and  wrought  them  for  a  great  many  years  in 
a  great  number  of  specified  cases,  over  a  wide  ex- 
tent of  country. 

Many  scores  of  such  wonders  are  distinctly 
recorded  ;  and  we  are  told  that  these  are  mere  sam- 
ples of  a  much  larger  number.  See  what  breadth 
of  statement !  "  And  His  fame  went  throughout 
all  Syria ;  and  they  brought  to  Him  all  sick  people 
that  were  taken  with  divers  diseases  and  torments, 
and  those  that  were  possessed  with  devils,  and  those 
that  were  lunatic,  and  those  that  had  the  palsy ; 
and  He  healed  them."  Similar  statements  are  sev- 
eral times  made  in  regard  to  the  miracles  of  both 
Jesus  and  His  apostles.  The  representation  is  that 
the  whole  land  was  filled  with  marvels.  They  over- 
flowed into  surrounding  countries.  They  lasted  for 
the  best  part  of  a  century.  They  counted  by  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands.  They  lightened  in  city 
and  on  country-side.  They  flashed  on  the  eyes  of  no- 
bles and  commoners,  of  learned  and  simple.  Scarcely 
a  hamlet  into  which  they  did  not  go.  Scarcely  a  man 
who  did  not  have  opportunity,  over  and  over  again, 
of  examining  them  personally  with  all  his  senses. 
Their  heavy  footfall  was  heard  near  every  door ; 
the  family  had  but  to  open  and  look  and  listen.  It 
would,  of  course,  have  paid  a  Jew  to  push  a  pil- 
grimage to  Gaul  and  Britain  to  come  into  the  pres- 


236  ANCIENT  WONDERS. 

ence  of  such  superb  events ;  but  they  came  to  greet 
him  in  his  own  streets,  and  he  had  but  to  follow 
the  crowd  or  to  cHmb  the  sycamore  or  to  ask  the 
eye-witness  of  yonder  dwelling  in  order  to  have  evi- 
dence of  them  as  triumphant  as  the  mathematics. 

Such  is  the  representation.'  And  we  are  assured 
that  these  wonderful  things  were  far  from  being 
done  in  a  corner.  In  general  Jesus  allowed  the 
whole  world  to  look  on  while  He  wrought.  He 
challenged  the  broadest  day  to  help  them.  Shine 
your  brightest,  O  Sun  !  Gather  the  wise  and  the 
learned  ;  gather  the  men  of  theory  and  the  men  of 
affairs ;  gather  the  unsophisticated  and  the  preju- 
diced, the  devout  and  the  worldly,  the  populace 
and  the  counselors ;  let  them  all  come  and  sift  this 
whole  matter  to  the  bottom  !  So  they  came  —  the 
scholarly  Rabbi  in  all  the  pride  of  learning  :  the 
honorable  ruler  in  all  the  pride  of  place ;  the  bitter 
enemy  with  his  sharp  outlook  for  imposture  ;  the 
proud  Pharisee  drawing  his  robes  more  closely 
about  him  lest  they  should  touch  the  shamefaced 
publican  at  his  side  ;  the  Sadducee  with  his  free- 
thinking  ;  the  Essene  with  his  dreamy  intuitions  ; 
in  a  word,  the  great  public  in  all  its  grades  and 
opinions  and  habits.  And  there  on  the  thronged 
thoroughfare  they  looked  and  listened  as  blind  Bar- 
tlmeus  regained  his  sight.  There  at  the  city-gate 
they  looked  and  listened  as  the  dead  man  sat  up 
and  began  to  speak.  There  at  the  crowded  city- 
house  they  looked  and  listened  while  the  roof  was 


CHRISTIAN.  237 

broken  up  and  the  palsied  man  was  let  down  before 
Jesus  and  cured.  And  there  at  Calvary,  with  its 
martyrdom  and  surging  sea  of  people,  they  looked 
and  listened  and  felt  as  night  came  up  at  midday, 
and  the  ground  shook  beneath  them  at  the  majestic 
tread  of  the  earthquake. 

We  are  so  familiar  with  this  story  that  we  are 
apt  to  miss  the  sense  of  its  exceeding  greatness.  It 
is  easy  for  you  to  read  without  emotion  the  oft-read 
account  of  the  Nain  widow's  child,  or  of  Lazarus 
bewailed  of  sisters  ;  but  could  you  actually  stand 
by  the  bier  which  a  word  is  shaking  with  the  throes 
of  resurrection,  or  by  a  cave  whence  swaddled 
death  comes  promptly  forth  at  the  word  of  com- 
mand, you  would  hardly  be  able  to  keep  back  your 
exclamations  of  wonder  and  awe.  Depend  upon 
it,  these  are  wondrous  accounts.  You  must  try  to 
transfer  yourself  to  those  distant  times.  You  should 
gather  about  you  in  idea  the  living  circumstances 
under  which  almightiness  is  said  to  have  stepped 
forth  to  its  work.  You  should,  as  it  were,  hear 
with  your  own  ears  the  inadequate  utterance  and 
the  hot  tramp  of  the  mighty  result.  Then  would 
your  dull  conceptions  be  roused  and  empowered  as 
was  that  ancient  Lake  of  Gennesaret  by  the  descent 
of  the  storm  upon  it.  Looking  as  through  your 
own  eyes,  you  would  better  take  in  the  huge  pre- 
tensions of  the  Scripture  narrative  —  as  it  tells  of 
lame  men  leaping  as  the  hart ;  dumb  tongues  sing- 
ing;  deaf  ears  waking  up  to   a   gospel    of  sweet 


238  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

sounds  and  the  voices  of  kindred  ;  blind  eyes  that 
had  rolled  sightless  from  birth  drinking  in  with 
passionate  joy  the  bright  aspects  of  Nature  and  the 
loving  looks  of  parents  and  children  ;  dead  bodies 
in  which  decay  had  already  proclaimed  itself,  quick- 
ened anew  with  the  mystery  of  life  and  soul,  and 
going  forth  among  men  with  the  old  potential  step 
of  manhood  in  its  prime  —  as  it  tells  of  such  events 
forthspringing  with  glorious  promptitude  at  the 
feeblest  natural  signal,  and  with  a  profusion  and 
overtness  that  spoke  to  the  whole  land  and  age. 

Now  what  I  have  to  say  is  —  and  I  say  it  with 
supreme  confidence  —  that  such  an  account  of  such 
events  as  these  could  not  by  any  possibihty  have 
been  believed,  either  by  the  Jewish  public  of  that 
day  or  by  the  apostles,  much  less  by  both,  had  it 
been  altocrether  false. 

Just  think  of  it.  A  boat  holding  Jesus  and  his 
twelve  disciples  was  crossing  the  Sea  of  Galilee. 
The  sky  darkened,  the  winds  rushed,  the  waters 
were  lashed  into  great  billows  and  raged  about 
the  little'  company  with  terrible  outcry.  The  skiflP 
reeled.  It  sprang  madly  aloft,  and  plunged  —  as  if 
never  to  rise  again.  The  water  came  pouring  in. 
The  reverence  of  the  disciples  for  their  sleeping 
master  could  hold  them  back  no  longer.  They 
awoke  Him  with,  Lord,  save  us,  we  perish.  Then 
stood  up  Jesus  and  looked  calmly  forth.  At  His 
feet  clung  the  quaking  disciples,  around  Him  sky 
and  sea  were  mingling  in  stunning  uproar,  beneath 


CHRISTIAN.  239 

Him  the  boat  was  gradually  settling  under  the 
wave.  Then  rose  His  voice  clear  and  imperative 
above  the  storm,  Peace,  be  still.  At  once  all  was 
quiet.  The  shouting  voices  of  the  elements  ceased. 
Ceased  the  perilous  uplift  of  the  sea  ;  ceased  the 
swift  march  of  the  tornado.  But  a  murmur,  a  rip- 
ple, a  zephyr,  survived  the  utterance  of  that  mas- 
tering sentence.  The  saved  boat  ao;ain  moved 
serenely  on  its  way ;  while  the  saved  disciples 
whispered  to  each  other  in  amazement  and  awe. 
What  manner  of  man  is  this  that  even  the  wind 
and  sea  obey  him  ? 

Such  is  the  account  given  by  these  disciples.  Are 
the  facts  alleged  such  as  it  was  possible  for  them 
to  be  deceived  in  ?  Could  they  help  knowing 
whether  they  were  out  in  a  violent  storm  on  the 
Sea  of  Galilee  ?  Could  they  help  knowing  whether 
Jesus  used  the  words  attributed  to  Him  ;  and 
whether,  immediately  on  their  being  spoken,  all  em- 
broiled Nature  sunk  into  complete  hush  ?  Might  a 
single  man  of  them,  by  any  possibility,  mistake  in 
such  matters  as  these,  with  at  least  three  senses 
brought  to  bear  on  them  ?  If  not  a  single  man,  how 
much  less  the  whole  Twelve  ?  Let  a  sailor  tell  you 
that  lately  he  met  a  terrible  storm  and  came  near 
being  wrecked,  but  was  saved  by  a  sudden  lull  of  the 
gale  just  as  he  had  given  himself  up  for  lost  —  would 
you  ever  think  of  suspecting  that  his  senses  had  de- 
ceived him  ?  And  should  a  friend  hint.  This  is  an 
honest  man  ;  he  doubtless  thinks  he  was  tossed  by 


240  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

a  storm,  and  that  the  storm  suddenly  lulled  ;  but  he 
may  be  mistaken  after  all,  and  liave  had  nothing 
but  a  bright  sky  all  his  voyage  through  — ■  would  you 
not  think  him  Yevy  unreasonable  ?  And  should  the 
entire  crew  come  forward  to  confirm  the  story, 
would  it  even  occur  to  you  that  the  senses  of  the 
whole  number  had  played  them  false?  "  No,"  you 
would  say,  "  if  these  statements  are  not  true,  these 
men  are  flagrant  impostors.  The  things  they  al- 
lege are  of  such  a  nature  that  no  one  sound  man 
could  mistake  in  respect  to  their  reality.  Much 
less  could  such  mistake  happen  to  a  whole  crew." 
I  say  as  much  of  the  facts  alleged  in  that  apostolic 
story.  Those  many  apostles  could  not  have  been 
deceived  by  some  jugglery  of  their  senses  into  a 
belief  that  a  furious  tempest  instantaneousl}'  slept 
at  the  command  of  Jesus  when  it  did  not. 

So  of  other  cases  even  more  striking.  Did  not 
the  Twelve  know  by  at  least  three  senses  whether 
midnights  and  earthquakes  poured  their  testifying 
pomp  about  the  noon  of  the  crucifixion  ?  Did  they 
not  know  by  every  sense  they  had  whether  a  living 
Jesus  was  among  them  for  forty  days  after  He  had 
been  pronounced  dead  by  the  Grand  Coroners  of 
Judaea  and  Rome  ?  Did  they  not  know  whether 
they  saw  Jesus  rising  through  the  day  into  heaven, 
and  whether  thereupon  they  saw  an  angel  standing 
among  them  in  white  robes  to  tell  of  His  Second 
Coming  ?  Especially  did  they  not  know  whether 
they  themselves  possessed  the  power    of  working 


CHRISTIAN.  241 

miracles,  and  whether  they  actually  wrought  them 
in  great  number  and  splendor  for  many  years  ?  Do 
not  be  so  unreasonable  as  to  think,  No.  You  and 
I  understand  very  well  that  some  things  are  per- 
fectly incredible,  and  that  this  is  one  of  them. 
Those  twelve  men  could  not  possibly  have  been 
mistaken  as  to  the  reality  of  any  one  of  these  mira- 
cles ;  much  less  as  to  the  reality  of  thousands  of 
them  occurring  under  every  variety  of  form  and 
illuminating  a  whole  lifetime.  The  idea  that  many 
able-minded  men  could  lead  such  a  marvelous  life 
through  so  long  a  period  and  yet  not  know  whether 
it  was  real,  is  not  to  be  considered  for  a  moment. 
Just  as  ancient  Israel  must  have  known,  to  a  dead 
certainty  and  at  the  merest  glance,  that  no  such 
forty  years  of  miraculous  experience  as  Moses  wrote 
of  had  happened  to  them  in  case  it  had  not ;  so 
those  twelve  apostles  knew  perfectly  that  no  such 
gorgeous  caravan  of  miraculous  years  as  they  wrote 
of  had  borne  them  along  in  triumphal  march,  in 
case  it  had  not.  It  is  a  sure  matter.  I  would  like 
to  see  a  surer.  Yes,  the  apostles  never  could  have 
believed  such  a  story  had  it  been  altogether  false. 

But  they  did  believe  it.  Do  not  they  write  like 
believers  ?  Do  they  not  act  like  believers  ?  What 
charming  directness,  simplicity,  and  general  air  of 
good  faith  in  their  narratives  !  What  faithfulness 
in  recording  their  own  crudities,  mistakes,  and  sins  ! 
Truly  they  were  consummate  performers  if  they 
•were  merely  feigning  faith.    Never  did  stage-player, 

16 


242  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

though  his  name  be  Roscius  or  Garrick,  so  adiui- 
rabl}'  personate  reality.  And  then  see  how  they 
lived  and  died !  It  is  agreed  on  all  hands  by  the 
traditions  and  histories  that  the  primitive  Twelve 
who  lost  their  Master  by  crucifixion  passed  their  own 
lives  in  labors,  dangersf  and  sufferings  in  attestation 
of  the  same  miraculous  story  ;  and  at  last  endured, 
most  of  them,  martyrdom  for  the  same  ;  and  all  with 
no  possibility  of  any  such  result  to  themselves  (such 
was  the  spiritual  and  pure  nature  of  the  system  of 
religion  whicli  they  taught)  as  alone  could  beckon 
on  selfish  and  unprincipled  men  to  undertake  such 
sacrifices.  They  had  been  with  Jesus  through  all 
His  troublous  career.  They  had  seen  Him  cruci- 
fied. He  had  predicted  just  such  a  general  life  and 
fate  for  themselves ;  and  they  tell  us  that  from  the 
beginning  of  their  separate  mission  they  had  ex- 
pected the  fulfillment  of  that  prediction.  Indeed,  the 
very  circumstances  and  temper  of  the  time  —  only 
too  well  shown  in  that  howling  intolerance  that  be- 
set like  wild  beasts  the  tribunal  of  Pilate,  crying, 
Away  with  him!  Away  with  him! — must  have 
given  to  the  dullest  observer  assurance  of  the  utmost 
trouble  to  all  missionaries  of  the  new  faith.  And 
yet  the  apostles  went  forward.  They  went  forward 
with  steady  foot,  and  unsparing  tongue,  and  hands 
bearing  aloft  a  blazon  of  miracles  which  themselves 
had  seen  and  had  done  and  were  still  doing,  and 
which  were  known  to  almost  everybody — to  meet 
the  scowling  populace ;  the  infuriated  rulers  ;  the 


CHRISTIAN.  243 

bigotry  of  the  Jew,  the  scorn  of  tlie  Greek  ;  want, 
stonings,  scourgings,  chains,  prisons,  wild  beasts, 
crucifixions,  infamy  ;  in  short  to  receive  in  their 
faces  the  fiercest  wind  and  sleet  and  volleys  of  ill- 
will,  outrage,  and  death.  And  when  they  actually 
met  and  were  enveloped  by  the  storm,  did  their 
courage  fail  them  ?  Did  they  shrink  and  retreat  and 
finally  disappear  from  the  too  stormy  scene  ?  Nay, 
nay.  Nothing  overcame  those  witnesses.  Nothing 
seemed  to  daunt  them.  They  went  on  witnessing 
to  the  end.  Their  wonderful  testimony  was  reso- 
lutely held  up  before  all  faces  ;  until  at  last  they 
freely  anointed  and  sealed  it  with  their  blood. 
Would  you  or  I  have  done  that  for  a  known  impos- 
ture ?  Would  any  man  we  ever  knew  have  done 
it  for  the  merest  chance  of  a  success  so  unreward- 
ing to  a  wicked  man,  if  attained  ?  Say  anything 
you  please  of  these  men  ;  only  do  not  say  that  they 
did  not  believe  their  own  story.  That  is  too  incred- 
ible. By  all  the  laws  of  evidence,  and  by  all  the 
light  of  experience  and  history,  they  must  have  be- 
lieved it  full  cordially.  Give  up  all  faith  in  appear- 
ances and  history,  unless,  with  hand  on  heart,  you 
are  prepared  to  say.  These  men  were  fully  persuaded 
of  the  mimcles  for  which  they  so  resolutely  suffered 
and  died. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  Christian  story  of  mira- 
cles was  believed  by  the  whole  land  as  w^ell  as  by 
the  apostles.  It  was  the  universal  confession.  This 
man  doeth   many   miracles.     It  was  the  universal 


244  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

confession,  That  a  notable  miracle  has  been  done  by 
them  is  manifest  to  all  that  dwell  at  Jerusalem  and 
we  cannot  deny  it.  After  the  Christian  age  was 
fairly  begun,  it  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to 
the  Jews  to  question  the  reality  of  the  miracles  of 
Jesus  and  His  disciples.  They  only  questioned 
their  proceeding  from  God.  They  ascribed  them 
to  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  devils.  They  said  it 
was  magic  that  did  them.  So  say,  not  only  our 
Scriptures,  but  the  Talmud  and  all  the  literature 
assailing  Christianity  that  has  come  down  to  us  from 
the  earlier  centuries.  No  assailant  in  those  times  — 
neither  Celsus,  nor  Porphyry,  nor  Hierocles,  nor 
Julian  —  ever  denied  the  miracles ;  they  only  denied 
the  Divine  origin  of  them.  No  defender  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  earlier  times  ever  tried  to  prove  the 
miracles;  he  alwaj^s  took  them  for  granted  and  de- 
voted himself  to  showing  that  they  were  the  finger 
of  God.  The  belief  in  their  reality  was  universal. 
This  is  conceded  by  all  save  the  most  fantastic  of 
objectors  whose  principles  would  annihilate  all  his- 
tory. 

What  then  ?  Why,  this  general  belief  was  the 
belief  of  a  public  which  from  the  circumstances  of 
the  case  must  have  known  whether  the  Christian 
miracles  were  genuine  or  not.  The  nature  of  these 
alleged  miracles  was  such,  they  were  so  openly  done, 
they  were  done  in  such  prodigious  numbers  all  over 
the  land  and  for  so  many  years,  that  everybody 
had  easy  opportunity  of  surely  judging  them,  either 


CHRISTIAN.  245 

by  personal  observation  or  b}'  myriad-tongued  testi- 
mony. City  and  country  slione  with  them.  The 
whole  air  was  quick  with  their  sublime  electricity. 
It  rained  miracles.  As  magnificent  princes  on  some 
high  festival  stand  and  scatter  gold  among  the  peo- 
ple from  a  full  hand,  so  Jesus  and  His  apostles 
magnificently  stood  and  sowed  their  shining  largess 
on  the  land  as  out  of  the  fullness  of  a  heavenly 
treasury.  It  was  a  nebula  that  fell,  compacted  al- 
most beyond  counting,  till  star  touched  star  in  one 
blaze  of  white  mystery.  Such  is  the  representation. 
"  And  there  are  also  many  other  things  which  Jesus 
did,  the  which,  if  they  should  be  written  every  one, 
I  suppose  that  the  world  could  not  contain  (endure) 
the  books  that  should  be  written."  See  what 
strength  of  statement !  The  imposture,  if  impos- 
ture it  was,  was  on  so  huge  and  audacious  a  scale 
that  almost  everybody  had  repeated  opportunity  of 
bringing  all  his  senses  to  bear  leisurely  upon  it. 
And  the  alleged  miracles  were  in  general  events  of 
such  a  nature  that  common  people  could  judge  of 
them  quite  as  well  as  philosophers  —  I  think  a  little 
better.  Pray,  could  Gamaliel  himself  have  judged 
better  as  to  the  reality  of  that  quaking  earth  and 
darkened  heaven  which  are  said  to  have  w^aited  on 
the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  than  almost  any  elbowed 
man  of  that  great  crowd  which  then  went  surging 
through  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  ?  And  so  of  many 
another  marvel.  It  is  incredible  that  a  single  sound 
man,  however   plain,  should  mistake  in  regard  to 


246  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

such  cases ;  still  more  incredible  that  twelve  such 
men  should  do  it ;  more  incredible  still  that  the  gen- 
eral population  of  the  land,  including  millions  on 
millions  of  bitter  enemies  well  conditioned  for  de- 
tecting an  imposture,  should  join  them  in  the  mis- 
take, and  fully  admit  the  Christian  miracles  when 
really  not  a  single  one  of  them  was  genuine.  If  the 
whole  thing  had  been  a  fabrication,  the  apostles 
would  never  have  been  madmen  enough  to  publish 
it;  if  it  had  been  a  fabrication,  the  whole  people 
would  have  known  it  to  be  so.  Just  as  the  Hebrews 
of  the  Exodus  must  have  known  that  they  never 
journeyed  for  forty  years  under  such  a  heavenly 
canopy  of  miracles  as  Mosies  describes,  if  they  did 
not ;  so  the  Jews  of  the  Christian  epoch  must  have 
known  that  their  time  for  more  than  forty  years  did 
not  blaze  with  such  an  outpour  of  the  supernatural 
upon  it  as  the  New  Testament  tells  of,  in  case  it 
did  not.  There  are  some  things  that  we  know. 
And  among  them  is  this,  that  a  hostile  nation,  a  na- 
tion fiercely  bitter  against  Christianity  and  seeking 
every  possible  weapon  against  it,  would  never  have 
confessed  the  Christian  miracles  genuine,  as  they 
did,  unless  they  had  been  compelled  by  the  astound- 
ing majest}'  and  abundance  of  the  evidence. 

And  now,  to  sum  up,  this  is  just  the  state  of  the 
case.  In  regard  to  the  Christian  miracles  it  is  in- 
credible that  a  single  sound  sense  fairly  brought  to 
bear  on  them  should  be  deceived  ;  much  more  sev- 
eral sound  senses;  much  more  still  several  sound 


JOINT  IMPORT.  247 

senses  of  twelve  daily  companions  of  Jesus ;  most  of 
all,  the  senses  and  judgments  of  millions  of  hostile 
persons  and  virtually  the  whole  national  popula- 
tion. That  apostolic  consensus,  joined  by  the  mag- 
nificent levy  en  masse  of  auxiliary  testimony  from 
all  Jewry  and  contiguous  countries,  lifts  us  to  the 
very  climax  of  moral  evidence.  It  is  fairly  sublime. 
Never  believe  more  unless  you  believe  now.  Say 
final  adieu  to  all  history  and  to  all  the  accepted 
rules  for  conducting  the  business  of  life  :  and  let 
one  broad  pall  of  Doubt  drop  on  all  the  facts  of  the 
Past  and  on  most  of  the  facts  of  the  Present  —  on 
everything  not  directly  testified  to  by  your  own 
personal  senses.  Nay,  even  your  own  senses  are 
logically  untrustworthy,  if  such  is  your  logic. 

So  the  miracles  are  real.  Not  only  does  the 
elder  world  of  Geology  glitter  with  them,  but  glitters 
with  them  the  Old  Testament  world ;  glitters  with 
them  the  New  Testament  world  as  well.  ^  Tis  true 
that  at  the  stretching  forth  of  a  human  hand  a  way 
was  divided  for  Israel  through  the  Red  Sea  ;  and 
that  at  the  touch  of  human  feet  the  river  Jordan 
became  a  wall  to  the  marching  host  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left.  ^  Tis  true  that  a  storm  sud- 
denly slept  at  the  bidding  of  Jesus ;  and  that  at  His 
death  Nature  mourned  with  the  voice  of  earthquakes 
and  with  the  sables  of  night ;  and  that  He  rose  from 
the  dead  and  dwindled  away  into  heaven  like  "  some 
retreating  star."  Many  such  things  are  true,  whole 
hosts  of  them. 


248  ANCIENT   WONDERS. 

"  Wliat  ailed  thee,  O  thou  mighty  sea, 

And  rolled  thy  waves  with  dread  — 
What  bade  thy  waves,  0  Jordan,  flee, 
And  bare  their  deepest  bed  ?  " 

What  mean  the  hosta  of  such  events  ?  I  need  not 
perplex  you  with  learned  inquiries  into  the  nature 
of  miracles.  I  need  not  insist  on  your  losing  your- 
selves in  the  dry  mysteries  of  intricate  definitions. 
All  I  have  to  do  is  to  ask  of  your  common  sense 
what  is  the  significance  of  such  events  as  we  have 
been  considering^  if  really  wrought  to  attest  such 
a  thing  as  the  Biblical  Relio-ion.  There  is  but 
one  answer.  You  and  I  know  there  is  but  one 
answer.  They  mean  a  great  invincible  Personal 
Power  in  sympathy  with  a  righteous  religion ;  and, 
of  course,  itself  righteous  and  truth-telling.  What 
it  attests  is  therefore  true  :  and  lo !  by  a  mighty  voice 
which  no  human  being  ought  to  suffer  to  speak  in 
vain,  we  are  called  on  to  believe  in  God  ;  in  His 
only  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ;  and  in  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  as  His  in- 
spired message.  I  say  unto  you.  Have  faith.  I  say 
unto  you.  Have  faith,  broad,  ponderous,  and  sub- 
lime as  the  everlasting  hills.  It  is  but  fitting. 
Nothing  short  of  such  a  faith  will  duly  match  the 
evidence  of  miracles. 


XIII. 

MODERN  SIGNS. 


XIII.     Modern  Signs. 

1.  ANSWERS  TO   PRAYER 25 1 

2.  ANSWERS   TO   BLASPHEMIES 256 

3.  IMPORT 260 


MODERN  SIGNS. 

TTTE  tell  unbelievers  of  miracles  that  took  place 
'  '  ages  ago.  There,  far  back  in  the  past,  are  the 
miracles  of  Moses,  of  Christ,  of  Christ's  Apostles  — 
the  ten  plagues  of  Egypt,  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea, 
the  manna,  the  water-pouring  rock,  the  fiery  and 
cloudy  pillar  that  guided  Israel  for  forty  years ;  and 
then  angelic  songs  and  sights  in  the  midnight  sky ; 
a  voice  falling  from  heaven  to  say,  "  This  is  my  Be- 
loved  Son ;  "  the  healing  of  the  sick,  and  hushing  of 
the  storm,  and  raising  of  the  dead  by  a  mere  word 
or  touch  ;  the  earth-shaking  death  and  not  less  mar- 
velous resurrection  and  ascension  of  Jesus ;  besides 
like  great  events  through  an  entire  generation  af- 
terward. We  point  to  all  these  as  evidences  of  a 
God,  and  a  Divine  Christianity ;  and  offer  to  show 
against  all  gainsayers  that  these  prodigies  rest  on 
better  authority  than  do  the  universally  admitted 
histories  of  Alexander  the  Great  and  Julius  Cfesar. 
Perhaps  the  unbeliever  feels  it  but  fair  to  confess 
that  he  can  offer  no  good  reply  against  such  an  ar- 
gument. Yet  he  is  not  satisfied.  He  wishes  those 
prodigies  were  not  so  ancient  and  distant.  It  seems 
to  him  that  if  something  of  the  kind  could  only  take 
place  within   the  range  of  his  own   observation  it 


252  MODERN  SIGNS. 

would  be  far  more  satisfactory ;  in  fact,  would  put 
prompt  and  final  end  to  his  doubts.  "  O  that 
some  such  Divine  interpositions  could  take  place 
within  my  time  and  sphere ;  that  I  had  not  to 
plant  myself  behind  a  telescope  in  order  to  receive 
a  faded  image  of  their  distant  glory ;  but  that 
my  own  senses  and  power  of  judging,  or  at  least 
those  of  my  contemporaries  in  whom  I  have  confi- 
dence, could  be  brought  to  bear  directly  upon  them, 
shining  among  our  own  homes,  and  lighting  up  with 
their  fresh  splendor  our  own  streets  and  markets 
and  rivers  and  fields  !  Then  faith  would  be  easy 
to  me.  My  whole  heart  should  say,  never  to  re- 
cant, "  Lo,  there  is  a  God  and  He  governs  among 
men  !  "  *'  Lo,  Jesus  is  His  messenger  and  the  Bible 
is  His  book  !  " 

Say  you  so!  Then  make  ready  at  once  to  bid 
final  adieu  to  your  unbelief,  your  half-faith,  your 
occasional  misgivings  and  debilities  on  the  subject 
of  Theism  and  Christianity.  I  am  able  to  present 
to  you  substantially  just  such  examples  of  the  per- 
sonal intervention  of  God  among  men  as  you  ask. 
You  shall  have  examples  belonging  to  your  own 
time  and  sphere.  You  shall  see  God  putting  out 
His  hand  among  your  contemporaries  and  neighbors, 
and  working  close  upon  your  right  hand  and  your 
left  things  which  the  received  principles  of  science 
forbid  us  to  ascribe  to  any  other  cause.  For  the 
present  I  will  cease  to  insist  on  things  antiquarian 
and  telescopic  ;  and  allow  you  to   stand   solely  on 


ANSWERS   TO  PRAYER.  253 

what  seems  to  you  the  solid  ground  of  the  world's 
current  observation  and  experience.  All  around  us 
are  great  Divine  actions,  as  truly  such  as  any  which 
under  the  great  name  of  miracles  are  attributed  to 
the  world's  early  ages.  We  do  not  choose  to  call 
them  miracles.  The  title  is  unfashionable  for  such 
modern  and  common  events.  But,  for  all  that,  they 
are  direct  Divine  interpositions ;  always  proving  a 
God,  and  often  so  circumstanced  as  to  prove  in  ad- 
dition both  His  Son  and  His  Word ;  and  can  no 
more,  in  accordance  with  the  scientific  principles  of 
evidence,  be  ascribed  to  any  natural  source  than 
could  a  sundering  of  the  Red  Sea  under  the  out- 
stretched arm  of  Moses. 

Let  me  give  some  examples. 


'$>• 


I.  ANSWERS    TO    PRAYER. 


A  young  man  of  Indiana  left  home  and  settled  in 
business  in  a  city  of  Ohio.  After  some  time  a  gen- 
tleman from  his  native  place,  being  in  that  city, 
took  the  opportunity  to  call  upon  him.  The  visitor 
was  shocked  to  find  that  he  had  become  a  profane 
swearer. 

On  returning  home  the  gentleman  thought  it  his 
duty  to  tell  the  sad  news  to  the  pious  parents. 
They  made  little  or  no  reply  to  his  statements ;  and 
after  leaving  them  he  was  somewhat  doubtful 
whether  they  had  fairly  understood  him.  So  he 
returned  the  next  day  and  repeated  his  statement. 
Said  the  father,  "  We  did  not  misunderstand  you 


254  MODERN  SIGNS. 

last  evening.  My  wife  and  myself  took  no  rest  dur- 
ing the  niglit,  but  spent  it  on  our  knees  pleading 
with  God  in  behalf  of  our  son,  and  about  day-break 
He  graciously  listened  to  our  prayer  and  granted 
an  answer.     James  will  never  swear  again." 

Two  weeks  from  that  time  James  made  his  ap- 
pearance at  his  parents'  house  —  a  changed  man. 
"  How  long  since  this  change  happened  ?  "  —  they 
asked.  He  replied  that  just  a  fortnight  ago  he  was 
struck  with  such  an  overwhelming  sense  of  guilt 
that  he  could  not  sleep,  and  spent  the  night  in  tears 
and  prayers  for  forgiveness.  The  prayers  were  ful- 
filling at  the  very  time  they  were  being  offered  in 
the  name  of  Clirist. 

A  merchant  of  Bristol,  England,  was  nearly 
ruined  in  property  by  a  sudden  disaster  at  sea.  His 
wife  was  overwhelmed  by  the  shock,  became  in- 
sane, and  had  to  be  confined  in  order  to  prevent  her 
doing  herself  and  others  harm.  Her  condition  was 
at  once  reported  to  her  father,  an  eminent  Christian 
living  a  hundred  miles  distant  in  Birmincrham.  This 
man  had  great  faith  in  prayer.  So  one  evening  he 
gathered  a  number  of  Christians  at  his  house  to  ask 
Divine  interposition.  They  prayed  with  great  ap- 
parent unanimity  and  fervor.  A  few  days  after,  a 
letter  came  stating  that,  at  such  a  time,  the  lady 
was  suddenly  restored  to  reason  and  her  usual 
health.  That  time  was  found  to  be  the  same  day, 
the  same  evening,  and  the  same  hour  of  the  even- 
ing when  those  Christians  were  praying  to  God  for 
her  in  the  name  of  Christ. 


ANSWERS  TO  PRAYER.  255 

In  a  certain  town  lived  an  aged  Christian  black- 
smith. One  day  while  at  work  in  his  shop  he  began 
til  inking  of  the  sad  moral  state  of  the  population 
around  him.  There  had  been  no  revival  for  many- 
years  ;  the  young  people  were  all  irreligious,  the 
church  was  almost  extinct ;  in  short,  all  around  was 
desolation.  As  he  mused,  his  distress  became  so 
great  that  he  threw  up  work,  locked  his  shop,  and 
betook  himself  to  prayer.  The  next  Sabbath  he 
asked  his  minister  to  appoint  a  conference  meeting. 
The  minister  would  do  so,  but  who  would  attend  ? 
The  evening  for  the  meeting  came,  and  with  it  more 
persons  than  could  be  accommodated  at  the  large 
house  to  which  they  had  been  invited.  All  was 
silence  for  a  time.  Then  a  man  burst  into  tears  and 
begged  that,  if  anybody  could  pray,  he  would  pray 
for  him.  Another  followed  in  the  same  strain,  and 
another,  and  still  another.  It  proved  that  persons 
from  all  parts  of  the  town  were  in  great  religious 
distress.  And  the  most  wonderful  thing  of  all  was 
that  all  these  persons  dated  their  distress  back  to 
the  very  hour  when  the  aged  blacksmith  was  pray- 
ing for  them  in  Christ's  name,  in  the  secrecy  of  his 
locked  shop. 

These  instances  will  answer  for  illustration. 
They  are  well  attested.  They  are  three  out  of 
multitudes  equally  striking  and  well  witnessed.  If 
any  one  will  consult  religious  journals,  Sprague's 
"  Annals  of  the  Pulpit,"  the  Works  of  Sir  Henry 
More,  the  *'  Scots  Worthies,"  The  Life  of  Francke, 


256  MODERN  SIGNS. 

Professor  Gibson*s  "  Year  of  Grace,"  and  the  rec- 
ords of  the  Fulton  Street  prayer-meeting,  he  will 
get  some  idea  how  full  the  world  is  of  such  wonder- 
ful answers  to  prayer.  Now  and  then  a  great  and 
complex  system  of  answers,  as  elaborately  jointed 
and  proportioned  as  was  ever  palace  of  prince  or 
cathedral  of  God,  rises  grandly  heavenward  to  awe 
reflecting  men.  Read  Miiller's  "Life  of  Trust,** 
and  judge  for  yourselves. 

II.   ANSWERS    TO    BLASPHEMIES. 

A  few  years  ago  some  followers  of  Fanny  Wright 
were  in  the  habit  of  meeting  in  Concert  Hall  in  the 
city  of  New  York.  One  of  their  most  intelligent 
and  frequent  speakers  at  this  place  was  a  certain 
deformed  man.  On  a  certain  occasion,  while  ad- 
dressing the  meeting,  this  man  took  occasion,  dis- 
tinctly and  formally,  to  defy  Almighty  God  and 
dare  Him  in  the  most  blasphemous  manner  to  seal 
his  lips.  Suddenly  the  blasphemer  became  confused, 
his  tongue  faltered,  his  language  lost  its  coherency, 
and  he  sat  down  amid  a  shower  of  hisses.  Shortly 
after  he  died  a  maniac ;  and  his  wife  renounced  the 
principles  which  had  brought  her  husband  to  so  ter- 
rible an  end. 

At  a  general  muster  in  the  town  of  Lebanon, 
Ohio,  a  wicked  man  was  spoken  to  on  the  subject 
of  religion.  He  was  filled  with  rage.  He  declared 
that  if  Jesus  of  Nazareth  were  there  he  would  wring 
his  neck.     Suddenly  a  violent  spasm  seized  his  own 


ANSWERS  TO  BLASPHEMIES.  257 

neck,  twisted  it  round,  rolled  his  eyes  nearly  out  of 
their  sockets,  and  left  him  in  this  frit^htful  condition. 

At  one  time  Newburg,  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
was  remarkable  for  its  infidelity.  A  society,  called 
the  Druidical  Society,  was  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  opposing  and  suppressing  the  Christian  Religion. 
Its  members  went  great  lengths.  For  example,  at 
one  of  their  meetings  they  burned  a  Bible,  baptized 
a  cat,  partook  of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Siii)per,  and 
finally  administered  it  to  a  dog.  That  very  day  the 
man  who  had  administered  this  mock  sacrament 
was  attacked  by  a  violent  inflammatory  disease,  his 
tongue  swelled,  liis  eyeballs  protruded  from  their 
sockets,  and  he  died  before  the  next  morning  in 
great  agony,  bodily  and  mental.  Another  of  the 
party  was  found  dead  in  his  bed  the  next  morning. 
Three  days  after,  still  another  fell  in  a  fit  and  died 
immediately.  In  short,  within  five  years  from  the 
organization  of  the  society,  every  one  of  its  original 
thirty-six  members  died  in  some  unnatural  manner. 
Two  were  starved  to  death,  seven  were  drowned, 
eight  were  shot,  five  committed  suicide,  seven  died 
on  the  gallows,  one  was  frozen  to  death,  and  three 
died  (as  people  say)  accidentally. 

A  gentleman  near  Hitchin  in  the  countv  of  Hert- 
ford,  England,  received  summons  to  appear  before 
a  inagistrate  and  answer  to  a  charge  of  attempted 
robbery.  He  went.  On  arriving  he  found  himself 
confronted  with  a  man  who  claimed  that  he  had 
been  knocked  down  and  searched  by  the  person  at 
17 


258  MODERN  SIGNS. 

that  present  standing  before  him.  Considering  the 
relative  social  positions  of  the  two  parties,  the  magis- 
trate felt  justified  in  hinting  to  the  accuser  that  lie 
feared  the  charge  was  only  made  for  the  purpose  of 
extorting  money ;  and  bade  him  take  care  how  he 
proceeded  and  incurred  the  dreadful  consequences 
of  perjury.  The  man  however  stood  to  his  charge 
firmly.  He  insisting  on  proceeding  to  the  oath. 
The  oath  was  accordingly  administered,  and  the  af- 
fair fully  investigated.  The  result  was  that  the  in- 
nocence of  the  gentleman  was  established  by  the 
best  evidence.  The  rogue  retired  much  cast  down 
at  the  failure  of  his  plot ;  and,  meeting  one  of  his 
neighbors,  he  desperately  renewed  the  charge,  and 
declared  he  had  not  sworn  to  anything  but  the  truth 
—  calling  in  the  most  solemn  manner  God  to  wit- 
ness, and  wishing,  if  it  was  not  as  he  had  said,  his 
jaws  might  be  locked  and.  his  flesh  rot  on  his 
bones.  Suddenly  his  jaws  were  fixed,  and  he  be- 
came unable  to  speak.  After  lingering  a  fortnight 
he  died  in  the  greatest  agonies ;  his  flesh  literally 
rottinff  on  his  bones. 

The  following  inscription  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
market-place  at  Devizes,  England.  "  The  mayor 
and  corporation  of  Devizes  avail  themselves  of  the 
stability  of  this  building  to  transmit  to  future  times 
the  record  of  an  awful  event  that  occurred  in  this 
market-place  in  the  year  1753  ;  hoping  that  such  a 
record  may  serve  as  a  salutary  warning  against  the 
danger  of  impiously  invoking  the  Divine  vengeance, 


ANSWERS  TO   BLASPHEMIES.  259 

or  of  calling  on  the  holy  name  of  God  to  conceal  the 
devices  of  falsehood  and  fraud.  On  Thursday,  the 
25th  of  January,  1753,  Ruth  Pierce,  of  Pottern  in 
this  county,  agreed  with  three  other  women  to  buy 
a  sack  of  wheat  in  the  market,  each  paying  her  due 
proportion  toward  the  same.  One  of  these  women, 
in  collecting  the  several  quotas  of  money,  discovered 
a  deficiency,  and  demanded  of  Ruth  Pierce  the  sum 
which  was  wanting  to  make  good  the  amount.  Ruth 
Pierce  protested  that  she  had  paid  her  share,  and 
said  she  wished  she  might  drop  down  dead  if  she 
had  not.  She  rashly  repeated  this  awful  wish  ; 
when,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  surroundino;  mul- 
titude,  she  instantly  fell  down  and  expired,  having 
the  money  concealed  in  her  hand." 

Now  these  facts  are  mere  samples.  They  are 
only  a  few  out  of  multitudes  equally  striking  and 
well  attested.  The  like  may  be  found  by  thousands 
in  our  libraries,  and  are  reported  not  seldom  in 
our  newspapers.  They  are  recorded  on  grave- 
stones, inscribed  on  buildings,  treasured  in  printed 
histories ;  they  traverse  the  country  in  oral  tradi- 
tions. And  almost  evefy  person,  if  he  has  had  no 
complete  personal  knowledge  of  such  facts,  has  had 
dim  suggestions  and  experiences  looking  in  their 
direction  which  assure  him  of  their  credibility  and 
even  probability. 

What  shall  we  say  to  them  —  to  these  answers 
to  blasphemies  and  to  those  answers  to  prayer !  I 
repeat,   the   reality  of  both  is  indisputable.     They 


260  MODERN  SIGNS. 

are  too  many  and  well  attested  to  be  called  in  ques- 
tion by  reasonable  men.  Beyond  question,  multi- 
tudes on  multitudes  of  them  are  as  good  as  any 
history  that  ever  was  penned.  And  what  is  the 
explanation  ?  Here,  an  individual  or  a  prayer- 
meeting  offers  a  prayer  through  Christ  for  a  per- 
son hundreds  of  miles  away ;  and  in  due  time  news 
comes  that  on  the  very  day  and  hour  when  that 
prayer  was  being  offered  it  was  fulfilled.  There, 
a  person  blasphemes  God,  or  Christ,  and  dares 
Him  to  strike  him  speechless  and  putrescent ;  and 
instantly  speechless  and  putrescent  he  becomes.  I 
ask  again.  What  is  the  explanation  of  such  incon- 
trovertible facts  ?  There  is  but  one  answer  —  God 
AND  HIS  Messenger.  The  principles  of  science  — 
the  principles  on  which  all  experience  shows  us 
human  life  must  be  conducted,  and  on  which  all  rea- 
sonable human  life  is  actually  conducted — require 
us  to  say  that  such  coincidences  are  not  by  chance, 
are  not  by  a  tangled  skein  of  blind  forces  and  laws ; 
they  are  by  the  active  will  and  power  of  the  really 
existent  God  to  whom  the  pious  or  the  impious  ap- 
peal is  made  ;  thus  testifying  to  Himself,  to  His  Son, 
and  to  His  Bible.  This  is  the  only  solution  which 
science,  experience,  and  consistency  permit  any  man 
to  entertain. 

But  might  not  such  coincidences  occasionally  hap- 
pen in  due  course  of  mere  Nature  ?  I  answer.  It  is 
of  no  consequence  to  say  whether  they  could  or  not. 
It  is  enough  to  be  able  to  say  that  the  chances  are 


THEIR  IMPORT.  261 

a  million  to  one  against  any  given  coincidence  of 
the  sort  occurring  otherwise  than  by  a  Divine 
agency.  And  this  we  can  say.  Suppose  you  should 
hear  that  in  the  city  of  London  there  is  a  bookseller 
of  the  name  of  John  Murray.  You  know  nothing 
positively  about  the  matter,  but  people  say  that 
there  is  such  a  man,  in  such  a  city,  and  that  he 
sends  on  application  such  and  such  books.  You 
act  on  what  you  hear,  and  post  a  letter  to  Albemarle 
Street,  London,  asking  to  have  a  immber  of  speci- 
fied books  sent  you.  By  return  of  steamer  you  get 
just  the  parcel  you  sent  for.  Now,  though  it  is  not 
in  the  nature  of  things  impossible  that  the  parcel 
should  have  come  from  some  other  quarter  —  say, 
from  some  friend  who  has  just  happened  to  think 
that  those  volumes  would  be  acceptable  to  you  and 
so  sent  them  —  yet  you  would  not  for  a  single  mo- 
ment have  any  idea  of  resorting  to  such  an  expla- 
nation. You  would  have  no  manner  of  doubt  that 
the  parcel  came  from  Mr.  Murray ;  that  there  is 
such  a  man,  and  that  he  sent  the  books  in  answer 
to  your  application.  You  would  take  the  coming 
of  the  books  as  a  decisive  proof  of  as  much.  Why  ? 
Because  your  experience  in  life  would  assure  you 
that  there  is  not  one  chance  in  a  million  of  the 
books  reaching  you  by  any  other  means.  Every- 
body would  consider  you  a  lunatic  or  an  imbecile 
were  you  to  judge  differently. 

I  receive  a  letter  purporting  to  be  from  an  inti- 
mate acquaintance.    It  is  possibly  not  from  him,  may 


262  MODERN  SIGNS. 

be  a  forgery.  But  still  I  am  confident  it  is  genuine. 
The  post-mark  is  that  of  the  place  where  he  lives, 
the  handwriting  is  like  his,  the  style  and  subject- 
matter  agree  with  the  supposition  that  he  wrote  it ; 
there  is  no  positive  reason  that  can  be  assigned  for 
believing  that  anybody  else  wrote  it ;  and,  alto- 
gether, I  do  not  doubt,  that  he  was  the  author,  de- 
spite the  bare  possibility  of  the  contrary.  Perhaps 
one  in  a  million  of  letters  with  similar  marks  may 
be  a  forgery,  and  there  is  a  possibility  that  this  let- 
ter may  be  the  ugly  millionth  ;  but  the  chances  are 
a  million  to  one  against  it  —  literally  overwhelming. 
I  should  be  considered  insane  were  I  in  practice  to 
make  any  account  of  that  one  chance.  People 
never  do  such  a  thing.  How  many  millions  of  let- 
ters are  every  day  received  under  similar  circum- 
stances, and  not  a  single  one  of  them  but  is  accepted 
as  authentic  wjth  unhesitating  confidence  ! 

A  merchant  receives  in  course  of  business  what 
purports  to  be  a  five  pound  note  of  the  Bank  of 
England.  Now  he  will  not  affirm  that  a  spurious 
note  of  this  Bank  is  impossible  ;  or  that  one  such 
note  among  a  million  is  even  improbable  ;  or  that  the 
particular  note  which  he  holds  in  his  hands  cannot 
be  that  not  improbable  millionth.  Still  he  is  abun- 
dantly easy  in  the  faith  that  the  note  is  good.  He 
ought  to  be.  Why?  Because,  its  whole  appearance 
agrees  with  the  supposition  that  it  is  genuine,  and 
all  experience  shows  that  the  chances  are  a  million 
to  one  against  such  appearing  paper  proving  coun- 
terfeit. 


THEIR  IMPORT,  263 

It  is  precisely  on  the  principle  of  these  examples 
that  we  are  bound  to  proceed  in  explaining  such 
wonderful  answers  to  prayers  and  blasphemies  as  I 
have  described  to  you.  There  is  no  occasion  to 
prove  that  these  cannot  be  mere  casual  coincidences 
—  chance  parcels,  forged  letters,  spurious  bills  ;  it 
is  sufficient  that  the  chances  are  a  million  to  one 
against  any  given  instance  proving  such.  Grant  the 
possibility  of  casual  coincidences  of  this  sort ;  grant 
that  one  such  coincidence  among  a  million  of 
prayers  and  blasphemies  is  even  not  improbable ; 
grant  that  any  particular  answer  to  prayer  or  im- 
precation may  be  that  not  improbable  millionth 
casualty;  still  we  ought  to  be  abundantly  easy  in 
the  faith  that  actually  it  is  nothing  of  the  kind,  but 
a  direct  personal  intervention  of  the  God  to  whom 
appeal  has  been  made.  Its  whole  appearance 
agrees  strikingly  with  the  idea  that  it  is  such  an  in- 
tervention ;  and  our  knowledge  of  life  assures  us 
that  as  a  matter  of  fact  such  a  coincidence  between 
the  appeal  to  God  and  the  event  would  not  occur 
casually  once  in  a  host  of  such  appeals ;  in  which 
case  science  teaches  that  the  probabilities  are  a  host 
to  one  that  any  given  instance  of  such  a  coinci- 
dence did  not  occur  casually  in  mere  course  of  Na- 
ture. This  is  vastly  better  evidence  than  most  of 
the  most  important  business  of  the  world  is  unhesi- 
tatingly carried  on  upon.  It  is  literally  overwhelm- 
ing ;  and  the  man  who  in  secular  life  should  reject 
such  would  be  considered  irrational  to  the  last 
degree. 


264  MODERN  SIGNS. 

But  why  are  not  these  wonderful  coincidences 
more  numerous  ?  Why  do  not  more  prayers  receive 
such  wonderful  answers,  more  blasphemies  receive 
prompt  judgments,  if  it  be  true  that  there  is  a 
God  ?  In  regard  to  prayers,  I  answer  first,  Many 
prayers  are  not  fit  as  regards  matter  or  manner  to 
receive  such  glorious  answers  ;  second,  not  improb- 
ably many  which  are  fit  cannot  in  the  nature  of 
things  be  answered,  or  cannot  be  answered  con- 
sistently ;  third,  not  improbably  many  which  are  fit 
in  themselves,  possible,  and  consistent  to  be  an- 
swered, can  be  best  answered  after  more  or  less 
delay,  like  many  of  the  requests  wliich  children 
make  to  their  parents.  In  regard  to  blasphemies, 
I  answer  that  human  sovereigns  find  it  best  in 
general  to  }>unish  crimes,  not  the  moment  after 
they  are  committed,  but  after  a  while.  Once  in 
a  while  it  is  not  amiss  —  on  the  contrary  exceed- 
ingly useful  —  that  the  sword  should  flash  down  in 
the  very  act  of  crime.  But  generally  some  delay 
is  better.     It  may  be  so  under  God's  government. 

Be  encouraged,  all  praying  persons !  Behind 
the  curtain  there  is  One  to  hear  and  answer  in 
Christ's  great  name.  He  has  done  it  of  old.  He 
does  it  to-day ;  in  many  a  land,  in  many  a  home 
and  history  as  narrow  and  obscure  as  your  own. 
So  ])ray  on.  There  is  a  God  to  pray  to,  and  a 
Mediator  to  pray  by  —  so  pray  on.  You  are  not 
throwing  yourselves  away  ;  nor  could  your  breath 
be  put  to  better  account.     Go  on  to  pray ;  go  on 


THEIR  IMPORT.  265 

to  pray.  You  will  get  answers.  If  you  do  not  get 
answers  equal  to  miracles,  you  will  at  least  get  such 
as  are  worth  the  having  —  answers  that  will  ever 
sweeten  and  invigorate  your  faith  until  you  can  joy- 
fully say  with  the  voice  of  a  monarch,  Lo,  I  have 
found  God! 

Be  warned,  ye  who  sometimes  venture  toward 
the  verge  where  stand  the  impious  and  scoffing  pro- 
fane !  God  is  not  a  mere  notion  of  priests.  He  is 
not  a  bit  of  ancient  statecraft  fast  getting  obsolete. 
The  curtain  has  something  besides  unbounded  va- 
cancy behind  it.  There  is  an  unbounded  Person 
there  ;  One  who  has  often  and  terribly  come  out  in 
vindication  of  Himself,  His  Son,  and  His  Word 
on  venturesome  and  tempestuous  sinners.  Tliat 
curtain  is  shaking  yet.  I  see  its  great  folds  throb- 
bing and  swaying  as  if  freshly  let  down  behind 
returning  God  ;  I  see  it  edged  and  fringed  with 
gold  as  if  from  a  Sun  within.  And  the  Sun  is  really 
there  to-day  —  and  the  Son.  So  look  reverently  in 
that  direction.  Put  off  your  shoes  as  you  approach. 
Bare  brow  of  body  and  of  soul  as  you  begin  to  deal 
directly  with  that  palpitating  screen.  When  you 
have  lifted  it  you  will  stand  face  to  face  with  God. 


XIV. 

NEARING  THE  CURTAIN, 


XIV.     Nearing  the  Curtain. 

1.  FITl'ED  TO    REVEAL 269 

2.  WHAT    IT   REVEALS 277 

3.  ILLUSTRATION 2S6 

4.  VERDICT 288 


NEARING  THE  CURTAIN. 

nPHE  traveler  often  becomes  aware  of  his  approach 
-*■  to  the  sea,  or  to  healthy  upland,  or  to  sickly 
marsh,  some  time  before  any  such  object  can  be  seen. 
His  sensations  inform  him  of  new  scenes  at  hand, 
and  of  their  general  character ;  tliough  perhaps  he 
would  find  it  hard  to  state  on  what  his  impressions 
are  based.  You  know  how  it  is  with  blind  men. 
In  a  way  often  mysterious  to  themselves  they  are  in 
the  habit  of  divining  their  approach  to  strongly 
marked  objects,  and,  to  a  very  considerable  extent, 
the  nature  of  those  objects.  They  are  vaguely 
sensible  of  the  presence  of  the  house,  the  forest,  the 
mountain,  or  the  man  which  they  cannot  see.  There 
seem  to  be  certain  characteristic  influences  flowing 
out  from  every  object,  and  which  gradually  weaken 
with  the  distance  from  it  —  like  the  light  from  a 
lamp,  the  heat  from  a  fire,  and  the  odor  from  a 
flower  —  tending  to  announce  and  manifest  it. 

Now  it  may  be  so  with  a  world  just  beyond  the 
grave.  A  gradually  weakening  outflow  of  influ- 
ences from  it  into  all  the  neighboring  region  may 
tend  to  manifest  its  true  character  to  those  approach- 
ing. Is  that  future  world  a  scene  of  waste  and  si- 
lent nothingness  ?     Then  it  may  happen  to  the  man 


270  NEARING   THE  CURTAIN. 

treading  the  border-land  of  death  to  receive  some 
chilling  impressions  of  the  great  Nothing  just  before 
him,  as  the  blind  man  does  of  the  bare  desert  which 
he  is  about  to  enter.  Is  that  world  a  scene  such  as 
the  spu'itualist  is  taught  to  expect?  Then  it  may 
liappen  to  the  man  treading  the  border-land  of  death 
to  find  his  mind  fillincr  with  faint  sensations  of 
spheres  and  modes  of  life  as  commonplace  and  dis- 
jointed and  frivolous  as  any  belonging  to  the  present 
state.  Is  that  world  a  scene  such  as  the  Bible  de- 
scribes ?  Then  it  may  happen  to  the  man  treading 
the  border-land  of  death  to  become  subtly  aware  of 
Hearing  a  land  where  a  personal  God  is  throned, 
where  Jesus  shines  and  mediates,  and  where  men 
are  treated  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body.  No  one  can  reasonably  deny  the  possibility 
of  this — shall  I  not  say  the  presumption? 

In  health  it  is  easy  to  forget  the  importance  of 
just  views  in  religion.  We  can  occupy  our  minds 
with  business  and  pleasure.  We  can  flatter  our- 
selves that  religious  things  will  bear  some  postpone- 
ment. So  that  when  our  attention  is  called  to 
them  —  what  with  our  cares  and  confidence  in 
future  opportunities — it  is  too  often  but  a  dull  and 
listless  gaze,  little  fitted  to  result  in  satisfactory 
knowledge,  that  we  give.  But  when  death  visibly 
makes  its  appearance  at  our  door  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
forget,  or  feel  listless  to,  the  importance  of  just  an- 
swers to  the  main  religious  questions.  Business  is 
forever  done.     Pleasures  have  said  their  final  adieu. 


FITTED   TO  REVEAL.  271 

The  mind  is  driven  in  upon  itself,  and  then  forward 
to  explore  the  dim  profound  into  which  it  is  about 
to.  launch.  There  is  no  mere  forgetting  the  great 
problems  of  religion.  There  is  no  more  viewing  of 
them  with  a  drowsy  eye.  They  have  become  mat- 
ters of  immediate  and  pressing  concern.  Without 
any  effort  the  soul  at  once  becomes  open-eyed  and 
penetrating  as  never  before  —  even  as  the  body  in- 
stinctively expands  and  projects  and  brightens  the 
material  eye  in  the  presence  of  unexpected  danger. 
At  such  time  you  have  seen  the  dull  orb  suddenly 
light  up  as  if  the  soul  herself  had  really  mounted  to 
the  window  of  her  turret  and  were  looking:  forth. 
You  have  seen  that  orb  swell,  and  draw  back  its 
fringed  curtains,  and  poise  itself  wakefully  and 
steadily  on  the  axis  of  its  motion,  as  if  it  would  pene- 
trate every  mystery  and  anticipate  every  stroke.  So 
the  eye  of  the  soul  tends  to  do  as  it  finds  itself  near- 
ing  th(*  grave  and  the  curtain  and  the  mighty  possi- 
bilities just  beyond  —  perhaps  on  the  eve  of  settling 
by  a  conscious  personal  experience  all  the  great 
problems  of  religion. 

Then,  too,  the  soul  may  be  expected  to  be  the 
most  honest  and  fair-minded,  as  well  as  the  most 
wakeful  and  zealous,  in  its  dealino^s  with  the  ojreat 
religious  questions.  Who  of  you  does  not  know^  it  ? 
It  is  here  I  touch  what  is  by  far  the  most  fruitful 
source  of  error  in  all  human  inquiries.  Too  often 
men  look  at  questions  with  no  hearty  wish  to  know 
the  truth ;  allow  their  reasonings  to  be  warped  by 


272  NEARTNG  THE   CURTAIN. 

their  pride,  their  prejudices,  their  passions,  their 
transient  interests ;  really  look  not  so  much  to  find 
the  truth  as  to  find  the  means  of  defending  the  side 
which  their  own  prejudices  have  already  taken  and 
determined  if  possible  to  prove  true.  The  case  is 
really  prejudged  in  the  heart  before  it  is  brought  to 
the  bar  of  the  reason.  With  such  unfairness  of 
mind,  and  so  little  honest  wish  to  know  facts  as  they 
are,  men  could  hardly  be  in  a  worse  condition  for 
arriving  at  truth.  And  it  must  be  confessed  that, 
while  they  are  in  the  full  blast  of  life  and  worldly 
influences,  the  best  and  most  careful  of  men  are  apt 
to  suffer  their  views  to  be  shaped  somewhat  by  their 
feelings  and  convenience,  instead  of  bending  them 
with  an  iron  hand  to  the  sole  authority  of  evidence 
impartially  sought  and  impartially  weighed.  But 
when  men  are  consciously  approaching  the  end  of 
life,  the  great  curtain  which  hides  the  great  Here- 
after, their  passions  and  prejudices  are  naturally 
awed  into  silence,  their  consciences  and  all  fair  and 
just  principles  within  them  receive  new  liberty, 
and  they  are  concerned  to  rightly  answer  the  main 
questions  of  religion  as  they  never  were  before. 
They  are,  or  may  be,  about  to  appear  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  ;  and  in  anticipation  of  that  possible 
interview  the  mind  instinctively  puts  its  thoughts 
into  an  attitude  of  comparative  uprightness.  It 
feels  that  the  point  has  been  reached  where  it  will 
be  useless  to  impose  on  its  reason  any  longer  for 
any  earthly  purpose  whatever.     In  a  few  days  all 


FITTED  TO  REVEAL.  273 

these  questions  will  be  questions  no  longer.  Now, 
if  ever,  it  wants  to  see  thino-s  as  thev  are.  If  God 
is  real,  it  really  wants  to  know  it.  If  Jesus  is  His 
Son,  it  really  wants  to  know  that.  If  the  Bible  is 
His  message,  it  really  wants  to  know  that.  It  is 
afraid,  as  it  never  was  before,  to  shut  its  eyes  on 
evidence,  to  twist  and  strain  and  mutilate  facts  and 
principles  into  a  preferred  shape  as  it  did  once. 
Standing  face  to  face  with  the  grave  and  the  solemn 
possibilities  of  a  future  state,  it  never  before  was  so 
fully  disposed  to  see  the  truth  just  as  it  is,  never  be- 
fore so  radically  honest  with  itself  and  ready  to  give 
every  consideration  its  due  weight.  How  im- 
mensely favorable  this  state  of  mind  to  just  conclu- 
sions !  Better  than  all  the  logics  of  the  schools, 
with  all  the  philosophers  back  of  them,  is  this  sim- 
})le,  honest,  earnest  wish  to  know  the  truth  which 
is  so  natural  to  one  consciously  approaching  the 
curtain. 

It  is  true  that  at  such  a  time  the  mental  powers, 
or  at  least  the  manifestations  of  them,  often  sym- 
pathize with  the  enfeebled  body.  But  very  often, 
also,  they  seem  stronger  than  ever.  Friends  gath- 
ered about  the  sick  man  are  surprised  at  the  prompt 
clearness  and  precision  with  which  that  plain  mind 
now  thinks  and  judges.  Sometimes  the  feats  of 
memory  and  intuition  are  wonderful  to  see,  and  al- 
most seem  to  belong  to  a  new  order  of  being ;  and 
astonish  the  subject  of  them  quite  as  much  as  others. 
A  clairvoyance  that  almost  defies  the  bounds  of  hu- 

18 


274  NEARING  THE   CURTAIN. 

man  nature  shows  itself.  His  whole  Hfe  flashes  up 
in  one  thought.  Cast  a  man  into  the  water  and  let 
him  pass  through  all  but  the  last  stage  of  drowning, 
and,  ten  to  one,  his  thought  will  show  a  power  of  per- 
ception and  review  and  self-judgment  awful  to  see. 
The  known  facts  of  this  kind  are  so  many,  and  oc- 
cur under  such  a  wide  range  of  circumstances,  that 
it  is  open  to  serious  question  whether  there  is  not 
in  every  case  of  dying,  however  dull  and  unrespon- 
sive the  outward  organs  of  manifestation  may  be,  a 
special  rallying  of  the  mental  forces  as  if  for  some 
great  crisis.  However  this  may  be,  we  know  that 
in  almost  all  cases  the  earlier  stacjes  of  fatal  disease 
show  no  appreciable  abatement  in  even  the  outward 
signs  of  mental  vigor.  The  man  can  perceive  and 
remember  and  judge  and  reason  as  well  as  ever. 
And  he  is  then  at  the  liitrht  of  his  knowledore  on 
religious  subjects.  Up  to  that  time,  whether  he  has 
been  aiming  at  it  or  not,  he  has  constantly  been 
coming  into  possession  of  new  items  of  information 
on  all  the  leading  topics  of  human  thought.  It  is 
impossible  to  live  in  the  midst  of  this  teeming  and 
instructive  Nature,  and  on  the  shore  of  the  seething 
sea  of  human  discussion,  without  having  constantly 
cast  up  at  one's  feet  sojnething  valuable  out  of  the 
endless  treasures  hidden  in  that  vasty  deep.  And 
it  is  fast  coming  to  be  a  doctrine  of  philosophy  that 
the  mind  seldom  or  never  loses  the  impression  of 
any  knowledge  which  it  has  once  possessed  ;  at  least 
its  life  and  ethereal  essence  remaining  with  the  mind 


FITTED   TO  REVEAL.  275 

firmly,  though  its  form  may  vanish.  So  there  must 
be,  up  to  tlie  last  or  as  long  as  the  powers  retain 
any  tolerable  vigor,  a  gradual  accumulation  of  facts 
and  principles  in  the  mind  which  will  aid  in  all  re- 
ligious inquiries.  It  is  true  that  prejudices  and 
errors  may  accumulate  also  —  as  fast  as  truth,  and 
perhaps  taster — but  then,  as  we  have  seen,  there 
is  something  about  the  conscious  death-hours,  es- 
pecially of  thoughtful  and  cultured  men,  that  goes 
strongly  to  nullify  the  influence  and  even  the  es- 
sence of  all  views  that  are  hollow  and  unreal.  Bub- 
bles are  very  apt  to  be  burst  by  that  pressure. 
Disguises  are  very  apt  to  be  penetrated  by  the  light 
that  sifts  throuo;h  that  curtain.  One  honest  hour 
before  its  dusky  outspread,  gazing  at  it  and  waiting 
for  its  throbbing  breadth  to  rise,  is  a  greater  de- 
stroyer of  shams  than  all  the  spears  like  weavers' 
beams  that  ever  logic  and  eloquence  wielded. 

Nosv,  these  various  considerations,  taken  together, 
mean  a  great  deal.  They  mean  that  at  the  time 
when  men  are  consciously  approaching  death,  and 
especially  when  there  is  no  appreciable  decline  but 
perhaps  even  a  great  increase  of  mental  vigor,  they 
are  in  their  best  state  for  judging  of  the  claims  of 
the  Biblical  Religion  —  with  its  Theism,  its  Chris- 
tianity, and  its  written  Revelation.  I  do  not  say  for 
a  learned  investigation  of  those  claims.  That  is  quite 
another  thing.  The  collecting  of  materials  for  an 
argument  after  the  manner  of  professional  scholars 
might,  in  those  painful  and  confining  hours,  proceed 


276  NEARING   THE   CURTAIN. 

at  serious  disadvantage.  Not  so  tlie  use  of  mate- 
rials already  collected,  which  is  really  the  only  work 
absolutely  necessary  to  be  done  by  most  dying  men. 
Christianity  professes  to  be  for  all  men.  According 
to  it,  the  means  of  a  just  answer  to  the  main  relig- 
ious questions  are  placed  as  fully  within  the  reach  of 
the  humbler  class  of  minds  as  of  the  loftier.  No 
laborious  and  learned  researches,  such  as  only  men 
of  leisure  and  talent  can  make,  are  necessary,  how- 
ever useful  they  may  be  in  their  place.  Honest 
looking  and  simple  praying  are  all  that  is  wanted. 
And  for  this  there  is  no  time  like  that  when  one, 
with  all  his  faculties  about  him,  perhaps  in  extraor- 
dinary force,  is  consciously  nearing  the  curtain 
which  hangs  before  his  Hereafter.  Then  the  mind 
is  most  retired  upon  itself,  its  ear  specially  with- 
drawn from  the  distracting  din  of  the  world,  its  eye 
most  wakeful  to  religion,  its  interest  in  it  most  pro- 
found, its  sum  of  information  concerning  it  most 
large,  its  honesty  and  fairness  and  wish  to  know  the 
truth  most  decided  ;  and  then  too,  perhaps,  sensa- 
tion itself  comes  to  the  aid  of  the  intellect,  and  mys- 
teriously spells  out  the  character  of  that  near  cur- 
tained land  whose  subtle  influences  fill  all  the  air. 
Then,  if  ever,  we  should  expect  a  vision  of  the 
truth. 

In  view  of  this  fact  I  ask  your  particular  atten- 
tion to  the  following  proposition,  to  the  proof  and 
illustration  of  which  the  rest  of  this  hour  will  be 
devoted.     The    proposition   is   this.     At  the   con- 


WHAT  IT  REVEALS.  277 

scious  approach  of  death,  faith  in  the  Biblical  Re- 
hirion,  with  its  God  and  Christ  and  written  Rev- 
elation,  never  weakens  but  almost  or  quite  always 
strengthens,  and  very  often  advances  to  a  splen- 
did assurance  ;  while  unbelief  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances never  strengthens,  but  almost  or  quite 
always  weakens  and  falters,  and  very  often  falls 
utterly. 

T  have  seen  many  persons,  both  believers  and  un- 
believers, consciously  approaching  death.  I  have 
heard  and  read  the  experience  of  multitudes  more  in 
the  same  condition.  And  1  have  yet  to  learn  of  the 
first  case  where  belief  in  the  Biblical  Religion  has 
grown  weaker,  or  unbelief  in  it  grown  stronger,  as 
the  last  hour  came  near.  On  the  contrary,  wherever 
I  have  been  able  to  compare  the  views  taken  at  death 
with  earlier  ones,  I  have  found  that  the  behever  has 
always  become  more  unquestioning  and  unembar- 
rassed in  his  faith,  and  tlie  unbehever  more  hesi- 
tatirio;  and  tremulous  in  his  unbelief.  On  the  one 
hand  difficulties  and  hesitations' have  always  shown 
tendency  to  melt  away ;  on  the  other  they  have  al- 
ways gathered  new  firmness.  It  is  said  that  Hume 
})rofessed  to  die  as  faithless  as  he  lived  ;  the  con- 
trary is  also  said.  But  how  many  have  I  heard  of, 
who,  like  Hume's  mother  and  Paine  and  Voltaire, 
have  been  known  to  die  amid  a  furious  upbreak  of 
their  unbelief.  Of  how  many  have  I  heard,  who, 
like  Altamont  and  Rochester,  have  in  their  last 
hours  renounced  their  atheism  and  infidelity  with 


278  NEARING  THE   CURTAIN. 

horror,  and  from  before  the  quaking  Curtain  warned 
others  against  such  errors  with  terrible  eloquence  ! 
But  when  have  I  heard  of  a  believer  renouncing  his 
God  and  Bible  in  view  of  a  dying  bed,  and  calling 
out  loud  alarms  to  all  whom  it  may  concern  to  avoid 
his  egregious  faith  and  folly  ?  Never.  On  the 
contrary,  I  have  heard  of  great  numbers  who  under 
such  circumstances  have  suddenly  expanded  into 
such  rejoicing  giants  of  faith  as  were  most  marvel- 
ous to  sed,  and  a  marvel  to  themselves. 

Take  a  single  example.  Let  it  be  that  of  one  of 
the  greatest  and  most  successful  philosophers  of 
modern  times,  one  who  in  his  day  reaped  all  the 
highest  academic  and  other  distinctions,  both  do- 
mestic and  foreign,  which  a  British  subject  could 
possibly  win ;  and  who  has  ineffaceably  written  his 
name  in  capitals  in  the  history  of  science  —  I  mean 
Sir  David  Brewster.  This  famous  man  recently 
passed  away.  He  had  been  a  Christian  believer  for 
many  years.  For  many  years  his  profound  study 
of  Nature  had  walked  side  by  side  with  an  equally 
profound  faith  in  God  and  Jesus  and  the  Bible. 
But  when  he  came  to  his  last  days  his  faith  took  on 
unwonted  majesty  of  port  and  mien.  The  curtain 
before  which  he  was  standing  seemed  to  shimmer 
upon  him  with  potent  and  mysterious  day.  Hear 
what  was  said  at  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Edinburgh  by  his  physician,  Sir  James  Simpson,  the 
Queen's  physician  for  Scotland,  and  a  man  of  Euro- 
pean celebrity  for  science. 


WHAT  IT   REVEALS.  279 

"  To  Mr.  Phinn  and  other  clerical  friends  he 
freely  expressed  in  these  his  last  days  the  un- 
bounded and  undonbting  faith  of  a  very  humble  and 
a  very  happy  Christian.  No  shadow  of  dubiety  ever 
once  seemed  to  cloud  his  mind.  In  his  march  for- 
ward into  and  through  the  river  of  death,  it  seemed 
as  if  Christ  were  ever  whispering  in  his  ear,  Fear 
thou  not,  for  I  am  with  thee ;  Be  of  good  cheer,  for 
it  is  I.  Like  my  former  dear  friend.  Prof.  John 
Reid,  he  seemed  to  be  impressed  with  the  idea  that 
one  of  the  great  joys  and  glories  of  heaven  would 
consist  in  the  revelation  of  the  marvels  and  mys- 
teries of  creation  and  science  by  Him  by  whom  all 
things  were  made,  and  who,  as  Prof.  George  Wil- 
son held  it,  was  not  only  the  Head  of  the  Church 
but  the  head  and  source  of  all  science.  '  I  have,' 
he  remarked  to  me,  '  been  very  happy  here,  but  I 
shall  soon  be  infinitely  happier  with  my  Saviour  and 
Creator.'  As  death  drew  more  and  more  nigh,  the 
one  idea  of  his  Saviour  and  of  his  being  speedily 
and  eternally  with  Him,  grew  stronger  and  more 
absorbino;.  On  one  occasion,  when  he  had  been 
speaking  of  the  different  members  of  his  family 
whom  he  would  meet  in  heaven,  he  paused  and 
seemed  to  gather  up  his  strength  to  say  with  a  won- 
derful power  and  emphasis,  '  I  will  see  Jesus ; 
Jesus  who  created  all  things,  Jesus  who  made  the 
worlds,  I  shall  see  Him  as  He  is  !  '  I  said,  You 
will  understand  everything  then  ;  and  it  seemed  to 
me  as  if  the  '  O  Yes '  of  his  answer  came  out  of 


280  NEARING   THE   CURTAIN. 

the  very  fullness  of  content.  Once  I  said  to  him, 
'  I  wish  all  learned  men  had  your  simple  faith.' 
Again  there  was  a  pause,  and  each  word  was 
dropped  out  with  a  never-to-be-forgotten  weight  of 
meaning,  '  I  have  had  the  light  for  many  years, 
and  oh,  how  bright  it  is.  I  feel  so  safe,  so  perfectly 
safe,  so  perfectly  happy.' 

"  As  a  physician  I  have  often  watched  by  the  dy- 
ing, but  I  have  never  seen  a  death-bed  more  full  of 
pure  love  and  faith  than  was  that  of  our  late  Presi- 
dent. It  was  indeed  a  sermon  of  unapproachable 
eloquence  and  pathos.  For  there  lay  this  grand 
and  gifted  old  philosopher,  this  hoary,  loving  votary 
and  arch-priest  of  science,  passing  fearlessly  through 
the  valle}"  of  death,  sustained  and  gladdened  with 
the  all-simple  and  all-sufficient  faith  of  a  very  child, 
and  lookino;  forward  with  unclouded  intellect  and 
bright  and  happy  prospects  to  the  mighty  change 
that  was  about  to  carry  him  from  time  to  eternity. 
'  I  feel,'  said  another  witness  of  the  scene,  '  I  feel 
that  words  express  very  little  of  that  death-bed ;  for 
the  marvelous  triumph  of  mind  over  matter,  of 
grace  over  nature,  was  shown  not  so  much  in  words 
as  in  the  whole  spirit  of  the  scene.  I  never  saw  a 
soul  actually  pass  away  before,  but  I  thank  God  I 
have  been  present  when  his  passed  away.  The 
sight  was  a  cordial  from  heaven  to  me.  I  believed 
before,  but  now  have  I  seen  that  Christ  has  abol- 
ished death." 

These  words  of  a  scientific  witness  of  the  end  of 


WHAT   IT  REVEALS.  281 

one  of  the  first  of  scientific  men  show  a  glorious 
culmination  of  faith  in  front  of  the  Curtain.  Lofty 
as  was  the  faith  of  the  life,  the  faith  of  the  death 
was  loftier. 

A  single  example  out  of  many  which  have  fallen 
under  my  notice  !  It  is  by  no  means  an  extreme 
experience.  I  have  known  others  still  more  strik- 
ing and  brilliant  in  themselves,  though  not  in  the 
illustriousness  of  the  subjects  of  them.  And  I  am 
sure,  my  hearers,  that  my  entire  observation  in  this 
matter  of  nearing  the  Curtain  thoroughly  accords 
with  your  own.  You  have  all  had  some  personal 
acquaintance  w^ith  last  sicknesses.  You  have  all 
heard  free  accounts  of  many  which  you  did  not  wit- 
ness with  your  eyes.  You  have  read  in  the  course 
of  your  lives  very  many  biographies  and  obituaries 
telHng  how  men  have  viewed  things  in  expectation 
of  death.  And  I  confidently  appeal  to  you,  to  the 
oldest  and  most  observant  among  you,  whether  my 
observation  has  not  been  confirmed  by  your  own. 
Did  any  of  you  ever  know  of  a  person  renouncing 
Theism  or  Christianity  as  he  came  to  look  into  the 
grave  ?  Did  you  ever  know  of  one  who  had  less 
faith  in  the  Bible  under  those  circumstances  than 
he  had  while  in  health?  On  the  contrary,  have 
you  not  met  with  many  well-attested  cases  of  be- 
lievers whose  faith  seemed  almost  turned  to  sight 
as  the  outward  man  perished  day  by  day  ?  And 
when,  I  ask,  have  you  met  with  a  case,  seen  or 
heard   or   read,   in    which   unbelief  has   gathered 


282  NEARING   THE   CURTAIN. 

strength  after  the  same  magnificent  manner,  and 
swept  down  into  the  grave  like  an  eastern  con- 
queror returning  to  his  capital  ?  Your  memory 
answers  firmly,  Never. 

What  does  this  prove  ?  It  may  seem  as  if  it 
proved  but  mere  outposts  of  the  broad  proposition 
which  I  have  laid  down,  leaving  unsupported  the 
whole  main  camp  of  allegations.  But  is  it  so? 
Not  if  the  principles  of  that  inductive  philosophy  on 
which  most  modern  science  rests  are  sound.  For 
the  striking  facts  just  mentioned  carry  with  them 
an  immense  induction  of  particulars,  all  firmly  look- 
ing one  way,  that  is,  toward  an  invariable  increase 
of  truthful  aspect  on  the  part  of  the  Biblical  Relig- 
ion at  the  approach  of  death.  The  fact  that  faith, 
within  our  field  of  observation,  is  often  at  that  time 
pushed  forward  into  even  triumphant  assurance, 
shows  that  in  a  vastly  greater  number  of  cases  within 
that  field  it  must  be  pushed  into  the  various  easier 
stages  of  increase.  The  fact  that  under  the  same 
circumstances  disbelief  of  the  strongest  kind,  within 
our  field  of  observation,  is  sometimes  pushed  back- 
ward into  even  energetic  self-renunciation,  shows 
that  in  a  multitude  of  cases  within  the  same  field 
the  weaker  disbeliefs  and  unbeliefs  must  be  pushed 
to  the  same  point ;  and  that  in  a  still  greater  num- 
ber of  cases,  disbeliefs  and  unbeliefs  of  all  degrees 
must  be  pushed  into  the  easier  stages  of  weakness 
and  decrease.  Take  the  sum  of  these  multitudes 
and  multiply  it  by  the  number  of  persons  whose 


WHAT   IT   REVEALS.  283 

fields  of  obsei-vation  have  been  equally  extensive 
with  our  own  and  independent  of  ours  ;  and  what 
an  immense  number  of  instances  have  we  of  dying 
men  helped  in  the  direction  of  faith  ?  On  the 
other  hand  we  know  of  absolutely  no  instances  of 
such  men  drawn  in  the  direction  of  unbelief.  We 
have  an  induction  of  millions  on  milHons  of  instances 
to  the  effect  that  the  credibility  of  Religion  in  main 
doctrines  improves  to  the  view  of  the  mind  on  the 
approach  of  death  ;  and  not  one  instance  in  which 
that  credibility  has  seemed  to  decrease.  And  so,  on 
the  same  principle  which  leads  the  astronomer  to 
believe  that  the  principle  of  gravitation  extends  to 
all  the  stars  that  shine  in  tlie  profound  of  space, 
which  leads  the  farmer  to  believe  that  autumn  is  a 
season  in  which  certain  seeds  will  surely  be  sown  in 
vain,  which  leads  the  fisherman  to  believe  that  in 
winter  certain  nets  will  be  drawn  to  no  purpose — in 
short,  the  principle  on  which  all  practical  life  and  all 
science  not  mathematical  is  founded  —  on  this  prin- 
ciple we  are  to  conclude  that  the  season  of  death  is 
one  which  never  weakens  faith  in  the  Reliojion  of 
the  Bible  and  never  strengthens  unbelief,  but  on 
the  contrary  almost  if  not  quite  always  does  just 
the  striking  reverse. 

Every  adult  whom  I  address  has  had  some  times 
in  wliicli  he  was  attacked  by  dangerous  sickness,  or 
feared  he  was,  or  feared  he  was  about  to  be.  He 
can  remember  that,  at  such  times.  Religion  with 
its  Theism,  its  Christianity,  and  its  Bible,  always 


284  NEARING  THE   CURTAIN. 

» 

began  to  look  increasingly  worthy,  truthful,  divine , 
that  somehow  objections  and  difficulties  in  respect 
to  it  seemed  to  become  faint- voiced,  and  draw  back, 
and  melt  away  of  their  own  accord;  that  he  was 
never  so  little  disposed  to  treat  them  scornfully  or 
neglectfully,  never  so  much  disposed  to  have  about 
him  their  friends  and  ordinances.  And  he  has  also 
noticed  many  signs  of  its  being  just  so  with  others. 
He  has  seen  that  the  scoffer  is  apt  to  be  more  cau- 
tious in  what  he  says,  as  soon  as  some  sickness  shuts 
him  up  at  home  and  he  begins  to  suspect  that  the 
enemy  is  groping  for  his  heart.  Suddenly  the  man 
becomes  less  ready  with  his  sneers  and  bravadoes 
and  arguments.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  he  is  less 
inclined  to  quote  Thomas  Paine,  less  inclined  to 
like  the  society  of  Bible-opposers,  more  accessible 
to  the  counsels  and  prayers  and  Bible-readings  of 
Christian  friends.  And  similarly  with  others.  You 
have  discovered  that  almost  every  person  is  more 
respectful  and  accessible  to  the  Bible  under  a  sense 
of  danger,  and  that  almost  every  believer  then  real- 
izes its  truth  and  importance  as  never  before.  I 
say,  almost.  But  when  you  consider  how  often  a 
pride  of  consistency  would  tend  to  hide  real  changes 
of  views,  and  how  often  you  have  no  fair  opportunity 
of  closely  watching  the  behavior  of  the  sick,  and 
what  have  ever  been  the  workings  and  tendencies 
of  your  own  mind  under  apprehensions  of  death, 
you  must  feel  prepared  to  strike  out  that  limiting 
word  and  believe  that  the  experience  of  all  around 


WHAT  IT  REVEALS.  286 

you  accords  with  your  own  —  that  to  all  your  friends 
and  neighbors  and  acquaintances,  as  to  yourself,  the 
Biblical  Religion  begins  to  look  increasingly  truth- 
ful and  divine  as  soon  as  it  is  viewed  as  from  the 
confines  of  another  world.     And  what  is  there  pe- 
culiar in  the  sphere  to  which  we   belong  to  make 
this  experience  local  with  us  ?     Beyond  question  it 
is  so  in  all  spheres  and  parishes  in   Christendom. 
There  is  everywhere  and  in  every  person  to  whom 
belongs  that  acquaintance  with  Christianity  which 
is  the  common  patrimony  of  those  brought  up  in 
Christian  lands,  a  quickening  of  the  mind  in  its  be- 
half as  ever  the  grave  seems  to  be  drawing  nigh. 
Only  let  a  man  fear  himself  hard  by  the  Curtain, 
and  then  with  faculties  still  sound  fasten  open  eyes 
on    the  Religion,  and  he  surely  finds  his  atheism 
more  tremulous,  his  infidelity  less  firm,  his  Chris- 
tian faith  more  unquestioning.    And  this  shows  how 
it  will  always  be  under  the  same  conditions  if  the 
approach  to  death  is    actual  as  well  as  suspected. 
Then  the  believer  will  go  from  strength  to  strength, 
and  the  unbeliever  retreat  from  weakness  to  weak- 
ness.   Then  faith  will  uniformly  brighten  and  some- 
times pass  into  splendid  assurance,  as  if  vision  ;  and 
then  unbelief  will  as  uniformly  grow  dim  and  often 
become  totally  extinguished.     The  whole  course  of 
experience  goes  to  show  that  the  dying  firmness  of 
Hume  covered  a  sinking  heart ;  and  that  his  case 
was  really  one  of  the  many  in  which  men  attempt 
to  prop  up  a  fainting  courage  by  giving  the  external 
appearance  of  it. 


286  NEARING  THE   CURTAIN. 

I  have  now  endeavored  to  establish  two  points. 
The  first  is,  that,  as  men  consciously  approach  death, 
and  while  as  yet  there  is  no  considerable  abatement 
in  the  strength  of  their  faculties,  they  are  in  their 
best  state  for  judging  of  the  claims  of  our  main 
Biblical  Religion,  considered  as  a  Theism,  a  Chris- 
tianity, and  a  written  Revelation.  Tlie  second  is, 
that,  at  this  best  time  for  just  views,  the  credibility 
of  this  religion  never  abates  but  almost  if  not  quite 
always  seems  greater  than  ever  before  —  faith  in  it 
substantially  always  brightening  and  often  passing 
into  a  splendid  assurance,  while  unbelief  and  disbe- 
lief never  strengthen,  but  on  the  contrary  substan- 
tially always  grow  weaker  and  sometimes  fail  alto- 
gether. Putting  these  two  facts  together,  have  we 
not  a  commanding  testimony  ?  That  when  the 
mind  is  most  withdrawn  from  disturbing  influences, 
most  wakeful  to  religion,  most  full  of  information 
about  it,  most  honest  and  earnest  in  its  inquiries,  and 
most  subject  to  whatever  of  revealing  power  may 
gather  about  the  threshold  and  curtain  of  the  future 
world  ;  that  then  its  judgment  of  the  whole  Biblical 
Religion  should  be  almost  or  quite  uniformly  more 
favorable  than  ever  before,  is  a  most  significant  fact. 
Is  it  possible  to  explain  it  on  any  supposition  short 
of  the  truth  of  that  Religion  ? 

Place  yourselves  back  two  centuries.  It  has  just 
been  declared  that  the  planet  Saturn  is  a  glorious 
be -ringed  and  satellited  world.  Some  believe,  some 
doubt,  and  some  disbelieve.     To  settle  the  question, 


ILLUSTRATION.  287 

yotir  best  situation  is  in  a  clear  night  and  before  the 
polished  mirror  of  a  telescope.  And  what  is  that 
you  see  yonder,  surrounded  by  a  crowd,  if  not  just 
such  an  instrument  stretching  its  dusky  column  up 
through  the  starry  evening  toward  tlie  planet !  You 
cannot  for  yet  awhile  have  close  access  to  the 
beaming  speculum,  but  you  can  approach  and  pass 
before  it  at  a  little  distance,  and  as  you  pass  snatch 
a  glimpse  over  the  shoulders  and  between  the  forms 
of  intervening  men.  You  do  it.  Lo,  sure  enou;  h, 
the  glimpse  you  catch  does  seem  to  be  that  ot  a 
radiant  orb  singularly  beset  with  something  which 
may  be  all  that  the  astronomers  say  it  is.  But  there 
are  others  who  are  having  that  perfect  access  which 
as  yet  you  have  not.  You  watch  them.  Here  come 
up  first  the  believers  and  defenders  of  the  new  as- 
tronomy and  gaze  upon  the  mirror.  In  a  multitude 
of  cases  you  hear  them  assert  with  supremer  confi- 
dence than  ever  that  the  questioned  orb  is  gloriously 
zoned,  and  waited  upon  by  several  moons  ;  while 
from  none  of  them  comes  a  retraction  of  their  old 
assertions,  or  even  any  the  less  firmness  of  mien  and 
tone.  Next  come  the  doubters  to  gaze.  And  in  a 
multitude  of  cases  you  hear  them  declare  that  they 
have  been  too  skeptical,  hear  them  renounce  their 
doubts,  and  say  with  those  who  have  preceded  them 
that  it  is  true  that  the  planet  shines  fairly  with  its 
cincture  of  light  and  cortege  of  satellites  ;  while 
the  others,  almost  to  a  unit,  pass  away  either  dumb 
and  uninterpre table,  or  with  a  less  doubting  air  than 


288  NEARING  THE   CURTAIN. 

they  came.  The  disbelievers,  too,  come  and  look  ; 
and  in  many  cases  you  hear  even  those  whose  voices 
have  been  loudest  and  longest  in  the  expression  of 
disbelief  affirm  that  at  last  they  are  convinced  ;  that, 
dark  and  zoneless  and  moonless  as  thej'  had  thought 
royal  Saturn,  the  sight  of  their  eyes  is  too  strong 
for  them  as  they  see  his  blazing  image  swimming  in 
the  mirror,  belted  like  a  knight  and  jeweled  like 
a  king  :  while  the  rest,  almost  to  a  unit,  pass  away 
either  mute  and  uninterpretable,  or  with  mien  per- 
ceptibly downcast.  And  in  absolutely  no  one  of  all 
that  crowd,  as  they  successively  look,  whether  be- 
lievers or  doubters  or  disbelievers,  can  you  see  a 
siorn  that  the  cause  of  astronomical  unbelief  has 
gained  the  least  aid  and  comfort  from  that  telescopic 
view.     What  remains  but  to  believe  ? 

And  now  the  approach  of  death  is  our  highly 
magnifying  reflector,  stretching  upward  through  the 
night.  We  living  men  have  caught  from  it  distant 
glimpses  of  a  starry,  crowned,  beauteous  Christian- 
ity many  a  time  when  we  thouglit  the  supreme 
twiliorht  might  be  gatherino;  about  us.  And,  in  the 
actual  night  of  the  last  sickness,  all  men  look  fairly 
on  it,  and,  almost  or  quite  without  exception,  think 
they  find  this  Christianity  looking  more  and  more 
like  the  fair  !md  starry  queen  she  is  said  to  be. 
What  remains  but  to  believe  the  Religion  even  as 
Ave  believe,  the  astronomy!  We  will  believe  it;  and 
count  apostolic  Galileos  and  Newtons  to  speak  high 
truth  as  they  declare  God  to  be  real,  the  Bible  His 


VERDICT.  289 

own  message,  and  the  Religion  of  Jesus  sacred  and 
divine.  We  will  believe  it;  satisfied  from  the  uni- 
form course  of  experience  that  unbelief  would  be 
found  fainting  and  failing  us  at  the  approach  of 
death,  and  upbraiding  us  with  it&  dying  breath  that 
we  did  not  believe  earlier.  We  will  believe  it ;  con- 
fident that  when  we  come  in  our  several  turns  to 
near  the  great  Curtain,  we  shall  feel  as  did  Patrick 
Henry  when  he  wrote  in  his  last  will  and  testament 
these  words  :  "  I  have  now  disposed  of  all  my  prop- 
erty to  my  family.  There  is  one  thing  more  I  wish 
I  could  give  them  and  that  is  the  Christian  Religion. 
If  they  had  that  and  I  had  not  given  them  one  shil- 
ling, they  would  have  been  rich  ;  and  if  they  had 
*not  that,  and  I  had  given  all  the  world,  they  would 
be  poor." 


10 


XV. 

THE   CURTAIN   RISING. 


XV.     The  Curtain  Rising. 

1.  EXAMPLES 293 

2.  CREDIBLE   TESTIMONY '  298 

3.  HONEST   WITNESSES 30I 

4.  COMPETENT   WITNESSES 302 

5.  VARIOUS    EXPLANATIONS 305 

6.  ASTRONOMICAL  VISION 308 

7.  VERDICT 311 


THE   CURTAIN   RISING. 

^HE  following  account  is  given  of  Stephen,  the 
first  Christian  martyr.  He  was  standing  before 
the  Jewish  Council  as  the  prisoner  of  Jesus  Christ. 
He  had  just  made  his  brave  confession,  had  rebuked 
the  wickedness  of  his  proud  and  bloody  judges  with 
the  boldness  and  authority  of  an  apostle,  had  seen 
them  so  cut  to  the  heart  by  his  upbraidings  that 
they  gnashed  on  him  with  their  teeth  like  so  many 
wild  beasts.  At  this  moment  he  looked  upward. 
Perhaps  it  was  to  ask  of  his  God  the  grace  of 
strentrth  and  comfort  for  the  crisis  which  he  saw  to 
be  just  at  hand.  But,  instead  of  his  gaze  stopping 
at  the  white  ceiling  of  that  council  chamber,  lo,  it 
seemed  to  penetrate  the  stone  and  mortar  as  if  a  can- 
opy of  crystal ;  and,  passing  upward  through  thick 
clouds,  upward  still  through  fathomless  azure,  to  rest 
at  Idst  on  a  briojht  and  beautiful  land  where  shone 
the  central  throne  of  God,  and  by  it,  in  the  place  of 
highest  honor,  the  form  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  man 
could  not  contain  himself.  He  felt  that  it  was  no 
optical  illusion,  no  fantasy  of  unstrung  nerves  and 
a  disordered  imagination,  but  a  solid  and  glorious 
reality  —  the  real  heaven,  which  had  long  bjen  to 
him  an  object  of  faith,  now  graciously  given  to  his 


294  THE   CURTAIN  RISING. 

sight.  There  were  none  but  scoffers  about  him  ; 
telling  what  he  saw  would  only  bring  them  upon 
him  in  a  new  storm  of  exasperation  and  hatred ; 
still  he  must  speak.  "  Behold,"  he  cried,  "  I  see 
the  heavens  opened  and  the  Son  of  Man  standing 
on  the  right  hand  of  God." 

On  just  this  day  of  the  week  and  of  the  month, 
Sunday,  December  12,  in  the  year  1697,  a  Chris- 
tian minister  lay  dying  in  the  city  of  Boston.  Says 
his  biographer,  ''  He  seemed  to  have  some  such  views 
as  the  first  Christian  martyr  had  of  the  glory  of  his 
enthroned  Saviour.  He  strove  to  speak  to  his  wife, 
and  at  length  exclaimed,  '  Oh,  wdiat  shall  I  say  ? 
He  is  altogether  lovely.  Oh,  all  our  praises  of  Him 
are  poor  low  things !  His  glorious  angels  are  come 
for  me.'  On  this  he  closed  his  eyes  and  never 
opened  them  again." 

John  Holland  was  on  his  death-bed.  He  wished  to 
have  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
read  to  him.  While  the  reading  was  going  on  he 
suddenly  spoke,  "  Oh,  stay  your  reading !  What 
brightness  is  this  I  see  ?  "  "  It  is  the  sunshine,"  sug- 
gested some  one.  "Sunshine  !  "  said  he,  "  no,  it  is 
my  Saviour's  shine.  Now,  farewell  world,  welcome 
heaven.  Oh,  speak  it  when  I  am  gone,  and  preach  it 
at  my  funeral  :  God  dealeth  familiarly  with  man.  I 
feel  His  mercy,  I  see  His  majesty  ;  whether  in  the 
body  or  out  of  the  body  I  cannot  tell,  God  knoweth, 
but  I  see  things  that  are  unutterable."  So  he  passed 
away  with  bright  looks  and  a  soft  sweet  voice. 


EXAMPLES.  295 

Another  well-known  minister  of  the  Gospel,  two 
days  before  his  death,  requested  his  daughter  to 
come  to  his  bedside  ;  when  he  thus  exclaimed : 
"  What  wonderful  views  I  have  had  this  day  !  I 
have  been  broufjht  to  the  borders  of  the  grave.  Oh, 
what  views !  Wonderful,  wonderful,  wonderful  ! 
I  have  heard  singing.  Oh,  how  wonderful !  Glory 
ineffable  !  "  On  the  last  day  of  his  life,  when  his 
final  conflict  seemed  actually  to  have  begun,  he  sud- 
denly revived  and  exclaimed  with  an  air  of  trans- 
port, "  Oh,  what  beauties  I  have  seen  !  Glories  of 
another  world  !  What  joys  do  I  feel !  I  have  seen 
the  Saviour."  In  this  state  of  ecstasy  he  continued 
till  the  last. 

The  manner  in  which  Payson,  of  Portland,  died 
is  familiar  to  many  of  you  ;  still  it  may  be  well  to 
remind  you  of  some  particulars.  ''  My  God  is  in 
this  room,"  he  said.  "  I  see  Him,  and  oh,  how 
lovely  is  the  sight,  how  glorious  does  He  appear, 
worthy  of  ten  thousand  hearts  had  I  so  many  to 
give  I  "  At  another  time  he  exclaimed,  "  The  Ce- 
lestial City  is  full  in  view  ;  its  glories  beam  upon  me  ; 
its  breezes  fan  me  ;  its  odors  are  wafted  to  me,  its 
music  strikes  upon  my  ear,  and  its  spirit  breathes 
into  my  heart ;  nothing  separates  me  from  it  but  the 
river  of  death,  which  now  appears  as  a  narrow  rill 
which  may  be  crossed  at  a  single  step  whenever 
God  shall  give  permission.  The  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness has  been  gradually  drawing  nearer  and  nearer, 
appearing  larger  and  larger  as  He  approached,  and 


298  THE  CURTAIN  RISING. 

now  He  fills  the  whole  hemisphere,  pouring  forth  a 
flood  of  glory  in  which  I  seem  to  float  like  an  insect 
in  the  beams  of  the  sun  ;  exulting  yet  almost  trem- 
bling while  I  gaze  on  this  excessive  brightness,  and 
wondering  with  unutterable  wonder  why  God  should 
deign  thus  to  shine  upon  a  sinful  worm." 

Another  and  final  instance.  Let  it  be  the  expe- 
rience of  Adams,  a  missionary  on  the  Gaboon  River, 
Africa. 

By  temperament  he  was  very  unimaginative  and 
practical.  Those  who  were  with  him  in  his  last 
sickness  saw  that  feature  still  ;  there  was  no  ap- 
pearance of  wandering  of  mind,  no  excitement  of 
the  imacrination.  They  refused  to  believe  him  misled 
by  a  fevered  brain  ;  and  declared  that  the  full  reality 
of  the  scene  could  only  be  felt  by  those  who  were 
present ;  who  heard  with  their  ears  and  saw  with 
their  eyes  —  seeing  his  face  as  it  had  been  the  face 
of  an  angel. 

"  About  eleven  o'clock,  Tuesday  morning,  he 
sunk  into  another  paroxysm,  and  we  again  thought 
him  dying  ;  but  after  about  an  hour  he  revived  and 
lay  for  some  time  in  a  quiet  state,  during  which  he 
seemed  to  be  engaged  in  silent  prayer.  Then  sud- 
denly starting  up,  with  great  animation,  he  ex- 
claimed, '  I  hear  music,  beautiful  music,  the  sweet- 
est melodies  !  I  see  glorious  sights  ;  —  I  see  Heaven. 
Yes,  the  gates  are  open  ;  let  me  go.  I  want  no  more 
of  earth  ;  detain  me  no  longer :  let  me  go.  Oh,  how- 
beautiful  I    Oh,  wonderful,  wonderful  views  I  have  ! 


EXAMPLES.  297 

Who  would  have  thought  that  I  should  have  had 
these  glorious  views?  Wonderful,  wonderful,  won- 
derful things  I  see  !  Surely  God  would  not  show 
me  all  this  glory  and  then  send  me  back  to  earth 
acjain.  Oh,  wonderful  that  such  a  sinner  as  I  have 
been  should  be  brouo-ht  to  this,  and  with  tongue 
unloosed  and  the  bonds  of  sin  broken,  see  and  de- 
scribe such  scenes  as  these  I  But  I  am  going.  Re- 
member what  1  have  told  you.  I  am  going.  My 
speech  on  earth  is  finished.'  Then  with  both  hands 
raised  and  gazing  upward  he  became  insensible  to 
earth." 

Such  are  a  few  examples  of  a  class  of  facts  which 
no  doubt  might  be  numbered  by  hundreds  and 
thousands.  I  could  myself  recite  to  you  scores 
of  them  as  good  as  any  history  that  ever  com- 
manded the  homage  of  mankind.  And  I  know 
that  I  have  heard  or  read  of  very  many  others,  the 
particulars  of  which  have  quite  faded  from  my  mem- 
ory. Some  of  you  can  say  as  much.  Doubtless, 
every  year,  through  the  wide  extent  of  evangelical 
Christendom,  a  very  great  number  of  these  speaking 
visions  occur.  From  the  nature  of  the  case,  only  a 
few  of  them  find  their  way  into  print.  Few  de- 
voted Christians  have  biographies,  or  even  obitua- 
ries, to  preserve  their  experiences.  Could  we  col- 
lect all  the  published  accounts  of  such  trances  as 
those  of  Stephen  and  Paul  and  Bailly  and  Holland 
and  Payson  and  Adams  and  Welch  and  Boyd  and 
Fulton  and  Tennent,  and  then  multiply  them  by 


298  THE   CURTAIN  RISING. 

thousands,  we  probably  should  still  fall  short  of  the 
actual  total. 

Now  let  us  ask  a  very  interesting  question.  In 
this  large  class  of  facts,  are  there  any  cases  of  an 
actual  uncovering  of  another  world  to  the  personal 
knowledge  of  living  men  ?  Do  any  of  these  strangely 
dying  men  actually  see  what  they  profess  to  see, 
and  hear  what  they  profess  to  hear? 

In  endeavoring  to  answer  this  question,  let  us 
notice  the  following  particulars. 

1.  There  is  nothing  intrinsically  incredible  in  an 
affirmative  answer. 

Many  do  say,  confidently,  that  we  have  in  such 
dying  experiences,  cases  of  an  actual  insight  into 
the  world  of  the  future  life ;  and  certainly  no  well- 
informed  man  can  deny  that  it  may  be  so.  There 
is  nothincp  in  the  nature  of  the  statement  itself  which 
ought  to  prevent  our  receiving  it  as  true.  It  is  not 
self-contradictory.  I  am  sure  it  cannot  be  shown 
to  contradict,  in  any  particular,  the  known  constitu- 
tion and  course  of  Nature.  On  the  contrary,  it  can 
be  shown  to  be  consistent  perfectly  with  the  known 
laws  and  order  of  the  world.  That  there  may  be  a 
world  other  than  that  which  strikes  our  present  bod- 
ily senses,  no  intelligent  person  will  deny ;  for  the 
very  good  reason,  that  multitudes  of  worlds  are 
known  to  exist  which  once  lay  entirely  outside  of 
human  observation.  The  worlds  the  microscope 
reveals,  the  worlds  the  telescope  reveals  —  glori- 
ously real  and  many  as  they  are  —  were  once  as 


CREDIBLE    TESTIMONY.  299 

much  covered  up  from  the  personal  knowledge  of 
living  men  as  heaven  now  is.  We  know  there  is  a 
universe  of  light  and  color  which  the  man  born  bUnd 
has  no  personal  acquaintance  with ;  a  universe  of 
sound  with  which  the  man  born  deaf  has  no  per- 
sonal acquaintance.  The  things  exist  —  exist  in  un- 
speakable magnitude,  variety,  and  beauty  —  though 
these  men  have  never  directly  known  them,  nor  in- 
deed have  been  able  to  form  any  conception  of  them. 
So  there  may  be  such  a  thing  as  the  Christian 
Heaven,  though  our  present  senses  are  altogether 
silent  concernincr  it. 

Further,  it  may  be  that  the  intelligent  principle 
in  us  has  powers,  at  present  generally  sealed  up,  of 
seeing  and  hearing  this  heavenly  world  without  help 
of  bodily  organs.  There  is  nothing  intrinsically 
incredible  in  this.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  facts 
of  the  same  general  nature  frequently  occurring. 
Such  are  those  many  instances,  in  which  the  powers 
of  the  mind  for  inward  action,  are  found  independ- 
ent of  the  condition  of  the  body ;  the  mind  think- 
ing, comparing,  judging,  reasoning,  remembering, 
all  the  more  powerfully  often,  the  more  weak  and 
decayed  and  broken  the  body  becomes.  How  the 
trampled  and  dying  flower-bed  will  billow  forth  its 
perfume !  To  find  that  the  mind's  power  of  out- 
ward action  —  of  knowing  the  world  external  to  it- 
self—  is  also  independent  of  the  condition  of  the 
body,  would  be  to  find  a  fact  of  quite  the  same  sort 
with  the  other.    If  the  one  is  real  the  other  is  cred- 


300  THE   CURTAIN  RISING. 

ible.  Think  again  of  the  man  horn  blind.  He  has 
never  seen ;  he  has  never  known  that  he  possesses 
the  faculty  of  seeing.  Yet  some  day  an  expert 
ocuhst  succeeds  in  convincing  him  that  he  has  the 
faculty,  lias  had  it  all  his  life  long;  only  there  was 
wantin<T  some  one  skillful  enough  to  unlock  it  for  his 
use.  The  operator  cuts  some  restraining  cord  or 
draws  aside  some  envious  film  ;  and  lo,  the  man  is 
in  a  new  world  !  Now  who  can  venture  to  say  that 
we  are  not  in  just  the  same  position  in  respect  to 
the  world  of  a  future  life,  as  this  blind  man  was  in 
respect  to  the  world  of  light  and  color  ;  in  possession 
of  a  perfect  faculty  for  observing  it,  and  only  need- 
ing to  have  the  seals  taken  off  from  the  faculty  in 
order  to  brins*  it  into  full  use  ?  Is  it  anv  more  in- 
credible  that  there  should  be  some  imprisoned  fac- 
ulty of  the  mind  which  the  touch  of  God  can  set  at 
liberty,  than  that  there  should  be  some  imprisoned 
faculty  of  the  body  which  the  instruments  of  the 
surgeon  can  liberate  ? 

Further,  there  is  nothing  incredible  in  the  idea  of 
a  bound  soul-sense  beginnino;  to  feel  itself  at  libertv 
at  the  moment  when  the  bodily  ties  begin  to  break. 
That  is  just  the  time  when  we  should  naturally 
look  for  some  signs  of  beginning  activity  and  free- 
dom in  tlie  powers  which  are  so  soon  to  be  in  full 
play.  That  is  just  the  time  when,  one  would 
think,  God  would  be  likely  to  allow  His  servants  a 
glimpse  of  the  coming  inheritance  ;  for  it  is  then 
they  most  need  it  for  their  solace  — on  their  beds  of 


HONEST   WITNESSES.  301 

pain,  with  all  worldly  comforts  receding,  and  the 
shades  of  the  sepnlcher  settling  around.  When 
then  it  is  asserted  that  such  death-bed  visions  as  I 
have  spoken  of  include  within  their  great  and  shin- 
ing orbit  cases  of  an  actual  uncovering  of  another 
world  to  the  personal  knowledge  of  living  men,  I 
feel  bound  to  grant  that  it  may  be  so.  And  I  ask 
you  to  grant,  without  reserve,  that  the  t  lini:  is  not 
intrinsically  incredible. 

2.  The  subjects  of  these  visions  firmly  declare  them 
to  he  instances  of  actual  insight  into  another  world. 

These  dying  men  give  us  a  testimony.  Not  one 
of  them  is  wilHng  to  admit  that  his  wonderful  expe- 
rience is  a  dream,  a  fantasy,  an  hallucination  of  the 
senses.  They  all  declare,  with  all  possible  directness 
and  explicitness,  that  they  have  had  revealed  to 
them  the  wonders  of  another  world  and  life ;  that 
by  an  interior  sense  they  have  perceived  actual  mu- 
sic, landscapes,  and  beings  not  open  to  the  bodily 
senses. 

3.  These  men  are  witnesses  of  perfect  honesty. 
Beyond  all  question,  they  profoundly  believe  what 

they  say.  They  mean  to  tell  nothing  but  sacred 
truth.  They  have  all  lived  upright  lives,  and  many 
of  them  have  furnished  some  of  the  purest  and  no- 
blest examples  of  virtuous  living  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  And  now  they  are  dying  ;  they  have  reached 
that  most  honest  of  all  honest  hours ;  they  are,  as 
they  suppose,  just  going  to  God  and  judgment. 
This  is  the  time  for  a  sincere,  careful  testimonv,  if 


802  THE  CURTAIN  RISING. 

ever.  We  are  sure  to  get  from  them  the  facts  just 
as  they  conceive  them  to  be  ;  without  exaggeration, 
without  colorhig,  without  fanciful  embellishment  of 
any  kind.  Wliatever  else  can  be  said  of  these  dy- 
ing Christians,  with  their  upturned  eyes  and  radiant 
faces,  as  they  declare  themselves  gazing  on  an- 
gels and  Jesus  Christ  and  indescribable  glories 
of  heavenly  landscapes,  no  one  can  for  a  moment 
think  of  denying  that  they  believe  every  word  they 
say,  down  to  the  very  bottom  of  their  hearts.  And 
that  bottom  is  very  deep  in  many  cases  ;  deeper  and 
riclier  by  far  than  that  which  deep-sea  soundings 
have  just  found  so  rich  in  healtliy  life. 

4.   These  men  are  competent  witnesses. 

They  are  not  ignorant  men,  men  of  feeble  and 
narrow  minds,  men  without  mental  discipline  and 
culture.  In  the  instances  I  have  mentioned,  and 
doubtless  in  multitudes  of  others,  they  are  men  of 
unusual  natural  abilities,  educated,  and  enlightened 
by  extensive  information.  They  are  not  always 
men  o^  nervous  and  enthusiastic  temperament.  In 
such  cases  as  that  of  Adams,  we  have  the  phe- 
nomena in  their  most  striking  forms  in  connection 
with  a  turn  of  mind  cool  and  equable  and  unimagi- 
native in  a  remarkable  degree.  Nor  do  they  al- 
ways appear  at  a  time  when  the  mind  is  enfeebled 
and  unsettled  by  disease.  You  shall  find  these 
dying  seers  talking  as  calmly  and  rationally  on 
other  subjects  as  they  ever  did ;  as  practically,  ju- 
diciously, and  full  of  common   sense  as   the  most 


COMPETENT   WITNESSES,  303 

sober-minded  of  us  could  desire.  And  in  some 
cases  their  minds  appear  even  more  sound  and  com- 
prehensive and  penetrating,  more  full  of  quick- 
ness and  order  and  healthful  strength  and  vitality, 
than  they  ever  were  in  what  were  called  their  best 
days.  The  visions,  too,  occur  in  all  sorts  of  dis- 
eases ;  are  not  confined  to  such  as  are  thought 
more  especially  liable  to  give  rise  to  distempered 
views  of  things.  Whether  the  end  come  by  gout, 
or  gangrene,  or  consumption,  or  fever,  apparently 
makes  no  difference.  The  men  I  have  spoken  of 
all  died  of  different  disorders,  and  all  died  like 
prophets.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  sev- 
eral safeficuards  now  instanced  have  often  been 
united  in  the  same  person  ;  the  great  talents,  the 
liberal  culture,  the  extensive  knowledge,  the  phil- 
osophic temperament,  the  disease  unapt  to  disorder 
the  mental  action,  and  every  appearance  of  sobriety 
and  healthful  vigor  in  that  action  as  directed  to- 
ward other  topics,  side  by  side  with  these  wonderful 
visions,  introducing  them,  following  them,  envelop- 
ing them,  permeating  them,  as  perfume  does  the 
flower. 

What  shall  we  say?  Are  not  these  competent 
witnesses  ?  Were  there  ever  any  more  so  ?  Un- 
less one  chooses  to  deny  that  men  are  ever  qualified 
to  judge  of  supernatural  facts,  he  must  admit  that 
these  persons  have  qualifications  of  the  very  high- 
est order.  If  such  men  are  not  able  to  judge 
whether  they  see  angels    and  a  Divine  glory  and 


304  THE   CURTAIN  RISING. 

heavenly  scenes,  there  is  no  such  thing  among 
men  as  being  able  to  clo  it.  And  if  so,  it  would  be 
impossible  for  God  to  reveal  anything  to  an  indi- 
vidual without  revealing  it  to  others.  And  further, 
no  man  is  able  to  judge,  on  the  basis  of  his  sin- 
gle personal  observation,  whether  he  sees  anything 
—  a  tree,  a  house,  a  man.  You  say  that  you  see  a 
tree.  What  proof  have  you  of  it  ?  Only  this  —  it 
seems  to  you  that  you  see  it;  and  the  faculties, 
bodily  and  mental,  which  must  be  concerned  in  the 
act,  appear  to  be  in  a  sound  and  healthy  condition. 
This  is  all  the  proof  you  can  have,  aj)art  from  com- 
paring your  observation  with  that  of  other  men  ; 
and  you  are  accustomed  to  think  it  sufficient.  Of 
course  you  can  judge  whether  you  see  the  object, 
when  you  can  judge  whether  the  two  parts  of  this 
proof  are  realized  in  your  case ;  that  is,  whether 
you  seem  to  yourself  to  see  the  tree,  and  whether 
the  faculties  which  must  be  concerned  in  the  seeing, 
in  case  it  occurs,  are  sound.  And  at  last  it  comes 
to  this,  that  you  are  a  competent  judge  when  these 
faculties  are  in  a  sound  condition.  This  is  the 
qualification;  the  only  one  the  case  admits  of; 
a  good  and  sufficient  one  ;  and  yet  not  good  and 
sufficient  unless  such  dying  men  as  Holland  and 
Bailly  and  Haynes  and  Adams  are  qualified  to 
judj^e  whether  they  see  the  scenes  of  another 
world.  For  if  the  soundness  of  all  their  faculties 
concerned  does  not  qualify  them  to  judge  whether 
thev   see  Heaven,  neither   does  the  soundness  of 


VARIOUS  EXPLANATIONS.  305 

all  your  faculties  concerned  qualify  you  to  judge 
whether  you  see  earth. 

A  thing  not  intrinsically  incredible,  when  testified 
to  by  witnesses  of  indisputable  honesty  and  thorough 
competency,  is  to  be  believed.  Deny  this  and  you 
deny  that  two  thirds  of  the  world's  knowledge  is  of 
any  value :  for  so  much  of  it  depends  on  just  this 
principle  in  regard  to  testimony. 

6.  Though  these  witnesses  were  not  competent,  no 
other  hypothesis  than  that  of  the  truth  of  their  testi- 
mony would  he  consistent  with  indisputable  facts. 

We  can  suppose  those  dying  visions  to  be  the 
illusions  of  disease,  or  the  phantasms  of  highly  ner- 
vous and  enthusiastic  temperaments  under  very 
exciting  circumstances,  or  the  creed  and  hopes  of 
men  vivified  into  pictures  and  almost  into  realities 
by  a  strong  faith  spurred  up  by  approaching  death, 
or  the  result  of  all  these  causes  together.  Will 
any  of  these  explanations  agree  with  such  facts  as 
the  following  ? 

First,  these  dying  visions  of  angels  and  Christ 
and  God  and  Heaven,  are  confined  to  credibly  good 
men.  Why  do  not  bad  men  have  such  visions  ? 
They  die  of  all  sorts  of  diseases  ;  they  have  nervous 
and  enthusiastic  temperaments ;  they  even  have 
creeds  and  hopes  about  the  future  which  they  cling 
to  with  very  great  tenacity :  why  do  not  they  rejoice 
in  some  such  glorious  illusions  when  they  go  out  of 
the  world  ? 

Second,  zealous   opposers  of  Christianity  never 

20 


306  THE  CURTAIN  RISING. 

have  dying  visions  contradicting  those  of  Christians. 
Why  does  not  disease,  or  nervousness,  or  imagina- 
tion, or  violent  disbelief  of  the  Bible,  set  these 
characters,  when  dying,  to  seeing  visions  of  annihi- 
lation, or  of  a  paradise  without  a  God  and  Christ  in 
it  ?  Certainly  we  have  a  right  to  look  for  such  things 
if  the  visions  described  are  due  to  causes  which  act 
equally  on  the  friends  of  Christ  and  His  enemies. 
We  certainly  have  a  right  to  expect  that  the  fevers 
and  imaginations  which  so  delude  the  Baillys  and 
Adamses  will  play  off  like  tricks,  only  varied  to 
suit  the  difference  of  faith,  on  the  Collinses  and 
Herberts,  the  Bolingbrokes  and  Owens. 

Third,  no  dying  visions,  under  like  circumstances, 
occur  in  respect  to  any  other  object  than  the  world 
of  the  future  state.  This  is  very  singular,  on  the 
supposition  that  they  are  mere  delusions  produced 
by  causes  acting  with  equal  force  on  all  classes  of 
persons.  Why,  here  are  misers,  thinking  of  gold, 
gold,  gold,  all  their  lives,  and  with  gold  still  upper- 
most in  their  thoughts  now  that  they  are  dying  (for, 
alas,  they  are  not  aware  that  it  is  the  last  sickness) 
—  why  does  not  the  cheating  distemper,  while  allow- 
ing them  to  perceive  and  talk  as  sensibly  as  ever  on 
all  other  subjects,  sometimes  make  them  see  mines 
of  gold  and  caskets  of  precious  jewels,  and  hear 
the  clink  of  coin  to  the  amount  of  a  king's  revenue, 
and  all  so  clear  and  life-like  that  no  persuading  can 
convince  them  that  they  are  deluded?  Here  are 
ambitious  men,  thinking  of  offices,  honors,  reputa- 


VARIOUS  EXPLANATIONS.  807 

tions  all  their  lives,  and  with  these  things  still  up- 
permost in  their  thoughts  now  that  they  are  dying 
(for,  alas,  they  are  not  aware  tliat  it  is  the  last  sick- 
ness)—  why  does  not  the  distempered  brain,  while 
allowing  them  to  observe  and  reason  as  soundly  as 
ever  on  all  other  subjects,  make  them  see  themselves 
seated  on  presidential  chairs  and  loftier  thrones, 
and  hear  the  vivats  of  admiring  throngs,  and  all  so 
clear  and  life-like  that  to  convince  them  of  the  mis- 
take would  be  quite  impossible  ?  Here  are  the  vo- 
taries of  pleasure  and  fashion,  thinking  of  drives, 
dances,  plays,  feasts  all  their  lives,  and  with  such 
things  still  the  ruling  passion  now  that  they  are  dy- 
ing (for,  alas,  they  do  not  know  that  it  is  the  last 
sickness,  and  they  hope  in  a  few  days  to  be  as  busy 
at  their  pleasures  as  ever)  —  why  do  not  the  excited 
nerves  and  irregular  fancy,  while  allowing  them  to 
view  and  speak  of  all  other  things  after  tlie  old 
manner,  make  them  see  wardrobes  fit  for  royalty, 
and  gay  festive-scenes  through  which  they  move 
in  triumphant  beauty  and  delight,  and  all  so  clear 
and  life-like  that  no  argument  can  persuade  them 
that  they  do  not  actually  see  what  they  seem  to 
see  ?  Such  questions  cannot  be  answered.  Un- 
intelligent causes  do  not  discriminate  between  the 
various  classes  of  men  after  this  wonderful  fash- 
ion. Altogether,  the  facts  cited  can  only  agree 
with  the  idea  that  dying  visions  of  good  men  are 
often  cases  of  actual  insight  into  another  world. 
As  its   hold  on  the  body  loosens,  the  soul    begins 


808  THE  CURTAIN  RISING. 

to  acquire  the  use  of  faculties  hitherto  locked  up. 
A  real  God  permits  it  to  look  in  upon  the  realities 
of  a  future  life ;  among  which  are  a  real  enthroned 
Jesus  and  a  real  Scriptural  Heaven. 

Certain  men  come  to  us  with  a  scientific  testi- 
mony. They  tell  us  that  they  found  their  way 
into  a  temple  glorious  as  a  dream  of  enchantment, 
where  twin  altars  blazed  and  twin  pontiffs  minis- 
tered. Each  gave  a  flaming  brand.  They  bore 
them  forth  and  flared  them  up  under  the  familiar 
sky.  Lo,  miracle  of  miracles  I  That  silver  seg- 
ment which  hangs  so  sweetly  in  the  w^est  expands 
into  a  revolvinor  world.  Those  islets  of  lio;ht  which 
roam  so  mazily  in  the  dark  deeps  resolve  themselves 
into  a  system  of  worlds  moving  in  inexorable  order 
about  a  blazing  sun  still  greater  than  they  all.  And 
those  points  that  twinkle  from  their  eternal  stations 
—  AMAZEMENT  —  cau  it  be  that  such  great  reali- 
ties hide  beneath  such  slender  seemings?  What 
seem  so  near,  depart  away  by  incomprehensible  ages 
of  travel.  What  seem  so  fixed,  take  on  motion  and 
rush  along  the  expanse  as  if  inspired  by  a  thousand 
whirlwinds.  What  seem  so  frail  that  the  wing  of 
the  soaring  bird  might  put  them  in  jeopardy,  sur- 
round themselves  with  multiple  cycles,  of  wdiich,  to 
our  breathless  imaginations,  eternity  itself  is  but  an 
elder  brother.  What  seem  so  confused,  turn  out  to 
be  an  economy  of  systems  on  whose  bright  circles 
embracing  beauty  and  order  move  in  perpetual  ju- 
bilee.   What  seem  so  few  to  our  untaught  counting. 


ASTRONOMICAL   VISION.  309 

become  the  outposts  of  multitudinous  armies,  up  and 
down  wliose  shining  squadrons  darts  with  air  of  huge 
bewilderment  our  human  arithmetic.  What  seem 
so  small,  gather  to  themselves  solar  stature,  and 
at  times  a  sphered  girth  within  which  the  system 
of  the  world  might  hide  all  its  membership,  welcome 
to  its  side  ten  tiiousand  fellow  systems,  and  still  go 
forth  on  revolutions  of  planetary  grandeur.  Such 
marshalings  of  beauty,  such  confederacies  of  sub- 
limity, such  hegiras  of  thrones  and  principalities 
and  powers  of  heavenly  glory  never  before  met 
even  their  thought.  It  was  as  if  new  faculties  had 
been  born  to  them.  The  hearts  of  some  grew  faint. 
Had  they  not  seen  the  skirt  of  God  —  the  holding 
hack  of  the  face  of  His  throne! 

Astronomers  come  to  other  intelligent  men  with 
this  great  testimony.  Do  these  intelligent  men  pre- 
sume to  question  it  ?  They  have  never  studied  the 
higher  mathematics.  They  have  never  even  looked 
through  a  telescope  —  most  of  them.  As  they  now 
are,  they  c&nnot  begin  to  verify  for  themselves  that 
sublime  astronomical  vision.  And  yet  they  receive 
it  as  science,  and  ask  to  have  it  taught  to  their  chil- 
dren. Do  they  act  unreasonably  ?  If  one  of  them 
should  say  in  self-justification, ''  There  is  no  coun- 
ter-testimony ;  the  positive  witnesses  are  many  ;  I 
have  no  reason  to  suspect  them  of  dishonesty  ;  they 
show  themselves  quite  sound-minded  in  other  things  ; 
what  they  testify  to,  though  sublime  and  far  beyond 
anything  I  am  able  to  discover  for  myself,  is  not  in- 


310  THE   CURTAIN  RISING. 

trinsically  unreasonable  but  is  in  the  line  of  the 
general  knowledge  and  faculty  of  the  race,"  —  I  say, 
if  a  man  should  justify  himself  in  accepting  the  as- 
tronomy on  such  grounds,  would  any  of  you  hesitate 
to  allow  that  they  are  sufficient  ?  Not  a  single  soul. 
And  just  such  are  the  grounds  we  have  for  accept- 
ing the  testimony  of  those  other  witnesses  w^ho  tes- 
tify to  glimpses  of  the  Next  World.  They  are  honest 
witnesses — as  honest  as  death.  They  are  capable 
witnesses  —  capable  as  ever  wrought  at  the  prose  of 
daily  affairs,  or  stood  before  juries.  They  are  many 
concurrent  witnesses  —  reckon  them  by  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands.  What  they  tell  is  indeed 
beyond  our  present  power  to  discover  for  ourselves 
—  something  very  wonderful  and  sublime ;  but 
wonderful  and  sublime  things,  and  things  that  must 
be  taken  on  trust  by  most  men,  are  by  no  means 
unknown  in  this  age.  All  the  sciences  are  full  of 
them.  Signals  of  strange  and  startling  faculties,  as 
yet  generally  latent,  abound  in  the  psychological 
phenomena  of  the  times.  From  earliest  date,  a 
certain  weird  border-land  of  experience  has  ever 
perplexed  and  awed  both  people  and  philosophers. 
And,  then,  there  is  absolutely  no  counter-testimony. 
The  witnesses  are  all  on  one  side.  Why  should 
not  the  jury  agree  ?  Why  should  the  judge  hesi- 
tate to  decide  in  favor  of  the  sublime  vision  ?  Es- 
pecially when  he  has  just  decided  in  favor  of  that 
sublime  astronomy  which  no  more  candid  and  capa- 
ble men  testify  to,  and  which  is  quite  as  much  out 


VERDICT.  311 

of  the  line  and  above  the  direct  personal  knowledge 
of  most  people  as  are  the  great  visions  of  Paul  and 
Stephen  and  Adams  ?  Yes  —  let  him  be  consist- 
ent, and  say  tliat  there  has  really  been  a  rising  of 
the  Curtain  to  give  living  men  glimpses  of  a  world 
beyond  the  grave  whose  whole  economy  recognizes 
a  Divine  Bible. 

Men  often  wish  they  could  have  something  like 
a  sensible  demonstration  of  the  truth  or  falsity  of 
Theism  and  Christianity.  If  an  angel  could  only 
come  and  tell  them  to  believe  ;  if  they  could  only 
for  a  moment  have  the  invisible  world  uncovered 
to  them  so  that  they  could  see  that  it  is  all  as  the 
Bible  represents  —  see  the  glorious  Heaven  the 
Christian  hopes  for,  the  glory  of  God,  and  Jesus 
standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God  —  they  would  ask 
no  more.  They  would  embrace  the  Gospel  zeal- 
ously without  any  further  delay.  But,  my  friends, 
you  have  almost  the  sort  of  demonstration  that  you 
ask  in  the  facts  to  which  your  attention  has  now 
been  called.  You  have  the  demonstration  only  at 
second  hand.  Persons  whom  you  have  known,  or 
what  really  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  persons  of 
your  own  times  as  to  whose  existence  and  experi- 
ence as  recorded  you  should  have  not  the  least 
atom  of  doubt,  have  actually  looked  into  the  in- 
visible for  you ;  have  seen  the  angels,  the  en- 
throned Christ,  the  Scriptural  Heaven.  Stephen 
and  Holland  and  Bailly  and  Payson  and  Adams, 
and  uncounted  more  of  the  same  stamp,  have  looked 


312  THE  CURTAIN  RISING. 

under  the  Curtain,  and  have  been  permitted  to 
tell  you  what  they  have  seen.  Were  you  to 
go  the  world  around,  you  could  not  find  more 
credible  witnesses  than  these ;  honest  men,  hon- 
est as  eternity  ;  capable  men ;  cultivated  men  ;  men 
who,  though  dying,  have  all  their  mental  faculties 
in  sound,  vigorous  play.  They  come  and  bid  you 
believe  on  the  strength  of  their  sight.  "  Believe  in 
Heaven,"  they  say,  "  for  we  have  seen  it ;  we  know 
we  have,  know  it  as  surely  as  we  know  that  we  are 
living  men."  "  Believe  in  Jesus  the  Messiah,"  say 
they,  "  for  we  have  seen  Him  arrayed  in  Divine 
glories  hard  by  the  throne  of  God  ;  we  know  we 
have,  know  it  as  surely  as  we  know  that  we  are  now 
speaking."  And  really,  this  seems  to  me  about  the 
same  thing  as  seeing  these  things  for  myself.  If 
this  seeing  of  theirs  goes  for  nothing  with  me,  doubt- 
less seeing  of  my  own  would  go  for  nothing  too. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  I  should  be  per- 
suaded, though  one  rose  from  the  dead.  I  protest 
to  you,  my  hearers  —  each  such  death-bed  scene 
as  that  of  the  missionary  Adams  is  an  independent, 
demonstration  of  the  truth  of  that  Religion  which 
is  preached  to  you  ;  of  God,  of  the  Son,  of  the 
Bible.  You  have  ten  thousand  most  irrefragible 
evidences  ;  for  unquestionably  there  have  been  that 
number  of  such  gorgeous  Christian  deaths.  They 
are  occurring  every  year,  all  over  evangelical 
Christendom.  They  probably  have  been  occur- 
ring ever  since   the   world  of  men  began  ;    more 


VERDICT.  313 

especially  since  that  time  when  the  martyr  Stephen 
looked  up  rapturously  into  Heaven  from  amid  the 
gnashing  wild  beasts  of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim. 
This  may  well  suffice  for  your  faith  till  such  time 
as  God  shall  be  lifting  before  your  own  death-beds 
the  Curtain  that  conceals  the  world  of  spirits.  Only 
a  few  are  permitted  to  tell  of  eternity,  seen  while 
yet  in  the  body  :  but  it  is  by  no  means  unlikely  that 
every  person,  either  before  or  after  speech  has  de- 
parted, while  the  soul  is  breaking  away  from  the 
body,  gets  real  glimpses  of  the  spirit-land  which  he 
is  about  entering.  Perhaps  the  Curtain  will  soon 
begin  to  rise  for  some  of  us.  Let  us  see  to  it  that 
our  glimpses  shall  be  glimpses  of  Heaven.  And 
while  our  friends  are  watching  our  attent,  though 
silent,  faces,  as  if  seeing  things  unutterable,  let  us 
be  renewing  Stephen's  vision  of  a  Heaven  opened, 
and  a  Jesus  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God  — 
Paul's  vision  of  a  Paradise  in  the  third  Heaven, 
with  its  unspeakable  things. 


i^ 


XVI. 

CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 


XVI.     Christian  Dynamics. 

1.  EXPERIENCE 319 

2.  NATURE   OF   THE   SYSTEM 332 

3.  TOTAL   STRENGTH 345 

4.  IMPERIAL   ROME 349 

5.  A  GREATER   EMPIRE 352 


CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

f\F  course  many  objections  can  be  brought  against 
^^  the  Biblical  Religion.  They  can  be  brought 
against  anything.  The  business  of  fault-finding  is 
proverbially  easy.  Almost  any  expert  advocate  will 
boldly  undertake  to  befog  to  common  minds  the 
clearest  sunshine  of  law  or  of  fact.  There  is  noth- 
ing so  pure,  nothing  so  fair,  nothing  so  true  —  abso- 
lutely nothing  —  but  that  an  ingenious  mind  can 
manage  to  bring  some  specious  accusations  against 
it. 

I  have  already  noticed  the  leading  infidel  objec- 
tions ;  also  given  briefly  what  I  regard  as  a  conclu- 
sive answer  to  them  all.  They  lie  as  much  against 
known  facts  as  they  do  against  the  Divine  origin  of 
the  Bible.  That  whole  way  of  objecting  which  is 
commonly  used  against  the  Bible  is  equally  good 
against  every  principle  of  morals,  against  every  his- 
torical fact,  and  even  against  every  mathematical 
demonstration.  I  have  spent  years  in  study  of  the 
abstruser  mathematics.  I  have  done  my  best  at  ex- 
amining tlieir  principles  ;  and  I  offer  to  bring  quite 
as  plausible  objections  against  their  every  particular 
axiom  as  any  Voltaire  can  bring  against  the  Religion 
of  Jesus. 


318  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

This  is  my  general  answer.  In  addition,  how- 
ever, ahnost  every  leading  objection  to  this  Religion 
can  be  met  with  some  valuable  answers  peculiar  to 
itself.  Of  course  it  would  carry  me  too  far  were  I 
to  attempt  to  deal  fully  with  each  such  objection. 
The  best  I  can  do  is  to  give  you  an  example  of  such 
dealing ;  and  to  take  for  my  example  one  of  the 
most  specious  charges  ever  made  in  the  interest  of 
unbelief.  This  I  now  propose  to  do.  And  I  do  it 
the  more  readily  from  seeing  that  the  discussion  to 
be  undertaken  is  fitted  to  throw  special  light  on  the 
nature  of  the  Gospel,  and  on  its  claims  to  reverence 
from  the  many  reverers  of  splendid  power  and 
triumphant  success. 

It  has  long  been  the  practice  of  infidels  to  assert 
the  inherent  weakness  of  Christianity.  A  century 
ago  it  was  given  out  at  Ferney  that  the  System 
could  be  put  down  by  a  single  vigorous  arm.  A 
little  later,  the  author  of  the  *'  Decline  and  Fall  " 
penned  a  stately  sneer  which  meant  that  the  relig- 
ion of  Mohammed  possessed  more  tough  stability 
than  the  Religion  of  Jesus.  To-day,  a  brilliant 
Quarterly  comes  into  our  reading  rooms  and  argues 
that  Christianity  is  both  feeble  to  conquer  and  fee- 
ble to  endure ;  that  it  has  little  influence  with  its 
friends,  less  force  against  its  enemies,  and  no  ability 
whatever  to  bide  the  light  of  science. 

Why  these  charges  ?  Plainly  from  the  idea  that 
if  Christianity  is  shown  intrinsically  weak  it  is 
thereby  show^n  substantially  false.     And  the  idea  is 


EXPERIENCE.  319 

correct.  A  weak  system  of  religion  is  not  suited 
to  human  wants,  is  not  suited  t(j  the  end  it  proposes 
to  itself,  and  so  cannot  be  from  a  wise  and  almighty 
God.  I  therefore  proceed  to  show  that  the  Chris- 
tian Religion  is  not  weak,  that  it  is  really  an  exceed- 
ingly strong  system,  really  a  magnificent  self-estab- 
lishing and  self-perpetuating  Force,  not  to  say  the 
joint  wisdom  and  power  of  God. 

I  appeal^  fi^'st,  io  the  experience  of  the  world. 

"  Appeal  to  the  experience  of  the  world !  "  ex- 
claims the  objector;  "why,  it  is  just  here  lies  my 
great  strength.  How  slow  have  been  the  advances 
of  Christianity  in  certain  quarters,  and  how  quick 
its  retreats  in  others  !  What  little  influence  has 
it  had  on  most  of  its  professed  friends ;  on  the 
measures  of  Christian  governments,  on  the  masses  of 
Christian  nations,  on  even  the  membership  of  Chris- 
tian churches  !  Into  how  many  mutually  contend- 
ing sects  have  its  followers  been  divided,  from  the 
earliest  times !  How  is  it  possible  to  construct  an 
argument  for  a  mighty  Christianity  out  of  an  ex- 
perience that  bristles  with  such  facts  as  these  !  " 

It  really  is  of  no  consequence  to  dispute  the  real- 
ity of  any  of  these  stumbling  experiences.  Admit 
them,  and  it  does  not  follow  that  Christianity  is  weak 
—  unless,  indeed,  it  is  true  that  there  is  no  system 
on  earth  which  is  strong.  For  a  like  experience 
belongs  to  every  other  historical  system,  whether  of 
religion  or  science  or  government.  Perhaps  the  ob- 
jector is  a  deist.     Has  Deism  —  any  more  than  Ro- 


820  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS, 

manism,  Mohammedanism,  or  Polytheism  —  never 
had  times  of  gaining  slowly  and  losing  swiftly  ; 
times  when  the  actual  practice  of  its  friends  was 
but  a  poor  exponent  of  its  theories  and  rules ;  times 
when  its  different  schools  were  many  and  mutually 
hostile  ?  Perhaps  the  objector  is  a  politician.  Has 
the  democracy  or  the  monarchy  or  the  aristocracy 
ever  been  without  its  parties,  without  its  courts  and 
prisons  in  full  play,  without  times  when  friends  in- 
creased slowly  or  enemies  rapidly  ?  Perhaps  the 
objector  is  a  man  of  science.  Is  there  any  leading 
science  which  has  not  had  its  slow  as  well  as  rapid 
spread,  its  local  defeats,  a  large  practice  among  its 
nominal  friends  inconsistent  with  its  principles,  vari- 
ous schools  shaking  argumentative  spears  at  each 
other?  In  short,  no  system  with  a  history  can  be 
mentioned  which  has  not  had  just  such  an  experi- 
ence in  these  respects  as  is  charged  on  Christianity. 
Even  sin  has  had  it.  Is  sin,  as  it  exists  among 
men,  a  feeble  thing  ?  Is  there  really  nothing  strong 
in  the  world  ? 

It  is,  however,  not  true  that  Christianity  exerts 
small  influence  on  its  professed  friends.  Hereafter 
I  mean  to  show  its  influence  to  be  vastly  great, 
though  much  less  than  a  Christian  could  wish.  But 
it  is  a  fact,  which  there  is  no  denying,  that  the  Sys- 
tem has  had  its  times  of  slow  advances  and  quick 
recessions.  The  primitive  church  was  soon  cor- 
rupted. The  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century 
ebbed  very  rapidly  in  Germany.     Our  missionaries 


EXPERIENCE.  321 

have  often  labored  long  with  apparently  small  re- 
sults. But,  before  weakness  can  properly  be  in- 
ferred from  these  facts,  two  things  must  be  shown  ; 
first,  that  substantially  the  whole  strength  of  the  Sys- 
tem was  enlisted  in  the  contest,  and  second,  that  the 
strength  of  opposing  influence  was  not  great.  ■  Until 
both  of  these  points  are  proved  nothing  is  proved. 
But  it  may  credibly  be  claimed  that  what  Christian- 
ity had  to  contend  against  was  human  wickedness, 
one  of  the  strongest  things  known  to  history,  and  in- 
deed able  from  its  very  nature  to  resist  successfully 
any  degree  of  force  that  may  be  brought  against  it. 
And  further,  it  may  be  claimed  that  never  yet  have 
the  full  energies  of  the  System  been  brought  into 
play  ;  that  its  power  is  partly  that  of  an  instrument 
committed  to  human  hands,  which  are  always  in 
some  degree  unskillful  and  unfaithful,  and  often 
vastly  so.  The  strongest  lever,  the  keenest  sword, 
may  accomplish  but  little  through  the  fault  of  those 
into  whose  hands  it  falls.  Friends  of  Christianity 
may  plausibly  enough  affirm  that,  had  it  always 
been  diligently  used  according  to  the  laws  of  its 
nature,  it  would  long  since  have  subdued  the  world. 
It  is  also  true  that  nominal  Christians  have  in  all 
ages  been  divided  into  many  mutually  contending 
sects.  So  far  as  this  division  has  given  rise  to  bit- 
terness and  strife  between  true  believers  it  has  of 
course  hindered  the  success  of  Christianity.  But 
what  is  this  admitting  ?  Merely  that  its  success 
is  capable  of  being  abated  in  some  degree  by  the 

21 


322  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

mighty  weakness  and  wickedness  of  human  nature ; 
a  thing  surely  consistent  with  the  possession  on  the 
part  of  the  System  of  any  amount  of  power.  Di- 
vision in  Christianity  is  one  thing ;  division  among 
its  followers  is  another.  The  one  would  indeed 
mean  weakness  in  the  system  ;  the  other  ma}"  spring 
merely  from  the  weakness,  natural  and  moral,  of 
man.  I  claim  that  it  does  spring  entirely  from  this 
source  ;  that  so  far  from  being  produced  or  in  any 
way  countenanced  by  Christianity,  it  is  opposed  by 
it  at  all  points  ;  and  that  so  the  System  is  no  more 
responsible  for  it  and  its  results  than  is  the  eagle  for 
the  head  wind  through  which,  with  powerful  and 
overcoming  stroke,  he  forces  a  somewhat  retarded 
way. 

Yonder  planet,  to  a  careless  examination,  is  a 
mere  speck,  with  very  inconsiderable  and  often  re- 
trograde motion,  and  wholly  uninfluential  on  its 
neighbors  and  ourselves  ;  but  if  you  look  into  the 
case  more  carefully  you  will  find  that  Jupiter  is  a 
huge  world,  doubtless  filled  like  our  own  with  an  al- 
most incomprehensible  sum  of  chemical  and  me- 
chanical forces,  firmly  holding  four  reluctant  worlds 
in  eternal  fealty  to  itself,  ever  advancing  on  its  path 
at  more  than  the  pace  of  winds,  and  so  related  to 
us  that  were  itself  blotted  from  the  system  we  our- 
selves must  disappear.  Yonder  star  seems,  to  a  care- 
less examination,  less  than  the  planet,  equally  un- 
influential, always  quite  stationary,  and  sometimes 
altogether   occulted;    and   yet    if  you  look   more 


EXPERIENCE.  323 

carefully  into  the  case  you  will  find  that  Alcyone 
is  equal  to  twelve  thousand  suns  like  ours,  is  po- 
tent with  solar  forces,  is  the  center  of  our  firma- 
ment, and  is  wheeling  about  itself  with  supreme 
ease,  not  only  our  own  world  and  solar  system,  but 
also  the  whole  glorious  Milky  Way.  Who,  with 
such  examples  of  Great  Powers  that  look  like  mere 
nothings  to  a  superficial  view,  but  must  admit  that 
the  Christianity  which  at  first,  perhaps,  seems  very 
slow,  very  weak,  and  often  almost  suppressed  by  its 
neighbors,  may  yet,  on  more  careful  inquiry,  be 
found  instinct  with  enormous  force,  even  with  the 
Wisdom  and  Power  of  God ! 

So  much  for  objections.  On  the  positive  side  of 
the  argument  I  ask  attention  to  the  following  par- 
ticulars —  the  single  handed  successes  of  Christian- 
ity against  prodigious  opposition  ;  its  greatly  supe- 
rior rapidity  and  frequency  of  success  as  compared 
with  opposing  moral  forces  when  all  have  equal 
field ;  and,  finally,  the  fact  that  on  such  field  it  al- 
ways conquers  all  these  enemies  as  long  as  it  remains 
pure  and  entire,  while  it  maintains  its  purity  and  en- 
tireness  in  a  remarkable  manner.  All  this  in  view 
of  features  in  the  System  adapted  to  such  effects. 

Without  help  from  any  quarter,  this  Religion  of 
Christ  has  achieved  a  thousand  triumphs  over  pro- 
digious power.  As  examples  of  successes  under 
such  conditions,  I  may  instance  the  many  radical 
conversions  it  has  effected  among  the  most  difficult 
of  men.     Men  of  iron  will,  men  scaled  in  all  varie- 


324  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

ties  of  wickedness,  men  who  to  strength  of  sin  and 
strength  of  nature  added  the  strength  of  hoary 
habits  ;  how  often  have  such,  by  some  simple  tract, 
some  Scripture  sentence,  some  common  sermon, 
been  subdued  into  new  men !  The  Ethiops  whit- 
ened, the  dappled  leopards  parted  with  their  spots ; 
and  beyond  a  doubt  it  was  the  Gospel,  pure  and 
simple,  that  wrought  the  wonder. 

Look  also  at  the  great  restraints  which  the  Sys- 
tem exerts  on  the  masses  in  Christian  lands.  Of 
all  lands  the  Pagan  are  most  corrupt.  Next  come 
the  Mohammedan,  which  have  some  grains  of  Chris- 
tianity in  their  creed.  Still  better  are  the  countries 
holding  to  the  Greek  and  Roman  Churches,  w^hich 
include  still  more  of  the  true  Gospel.  And  best  of 
all,  as  formal  statistics  show,  is  Protestantdom  with 
its  still  greater  leaven  of  the  Religion  of  Christ.  It 
is  here  we  find,  as  nowhere  else,  the  kingdom  of  the 
ten  commandments.  Our  legislation,  the  manners 
of  our  people  —  to  say  nothing  of  the  practice  of 
our  churches  —  dark  as  they  are  when  projected 
on  a  perfect  law.  shine  like  Chaldean  stars  on  the 
inky  background  of  heathen  countries.  Further,  on 
comparing  together  different  communities  of  the 
same  Protestant  land,  we  find  those  most  exem- 
plary in  every  moral  respect  which  are  brought 
most  regularly  and  closely  into  contact  w^ith  Chris- 
tian principles  and  institutions.  The  places  among 
ourselves  where  the  Bible  is  most  read  and  the 
sanctuary  most  frequented,  are   the   places  where 


EXPERIENCE.  325 

vices  and  disorders,  and  all  that  wise  parents  would 
dislike  in  a  home,  least  flourish.  Now  what  is  the 
explanation  of  this  ?  I  answer,  the  mighty  restrain- 
ing power  of  Christianity.  The  strict,  pure  Sys- 
tem, with  its  popular  cast  and  grand  sanctions,  is 
evidently  just  fitted  to  produce  such  results.  It  is 
a  plain  cause,  a  sufficient  cause,  a  cause  whose  vari- 
ations correspond  with  the  observed  variations  in  the 
phenomena  to  be  explained.  And  what  other  can  be 
assigned  ?  "  Liberty,"  says  an  objector,  "  Liberty  ! 
The  moral  differences  you  speak  of  are  owing  to 
the  different  degrees  of  civil  freedom  enjoyed ;  for 
freedom  gives  industry,  enterprise,  education,  and 
comfort  to  the  masses ;  all  of  which  things  favor 
public  virtue."  But  this  explanation  does  not  pro- 
fess to  touch  the  case  of  communities  belonging  to 
the  same  country.  Also,  it  does  not  appear  that 
freedom,  apart  from  some  measure  of  Christianity, 
or  under  the  same  low  measure  of  it,  has  been  wont 
to  stand  connected  with  any  better  state  of  public 
morals  than  absolutism.  Were  the  ancient  heathen 
republics  any  more  correct  in  their  manners  than 
the  average  of  ancient  heathen  monarchies  ?  Are 
the  papal  republics  of  South  America  any  fairer  to 
look  at  than  the  papal  kingdoms  of  Brazil  and 
Spain  ?  The  aristocracies  of  absolute  monarchies,  al- 
ways freer  than  the  other  classes,  have  they  as  a  rule 
been  noticeably  less  loose  in  morals  than  the  masses 
under  the  same  religious  influences  ?  Indeed, 
who  would    suppose    that   merely   diminishing  the 


326  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

restraints  on  corrupt  human  nature  would  be  likely 
to  improve  its  behavior  ?  But  does  not  self-govern- 
ment in  the  people  tend  to  general  industry,  enter- 
prise, intelligence,  thrift ;  and  so  to  an  orderly  and 
decorous  social  condition  ?  Far  from  it.  Superior 
liberty  alone  is  never  peculiarly  connected  with 
these  things.  There  must  be  at  least  liberty  and 
order;  which  latter  is  one  of  the  things  to  be  ac- 
counted for.  Mexico  has  long  had  as  free  a  consti- 
tution as  could  be  desired  ;  but,  as  there  have  been 
but  little  order  and  security  among  the  people,  they 
have  had  little  heart  for  any  but  the  most  make- 
shift mode  of  living.  And  so  in  several  neighbor- 
ing states.  Indeed  hardly  anything  is  plainer  from 
the  course  of  experience  than  that  order  in  liberty 
cannot  be  maintained  except  on  the  basis  of  a  gen- 
eral intelligence,  laborious  vigor,  and  sound  princi- 
ple in  the  people. 

As  examples  of  great  historic  successes  pertinent 
to  my  purpose,  1  may  instance  the  triumphs  of 
Christianity  in  the  Primitive  Age  and  at  the  Ref- 
ormation. At  both  these  times  she  entered  the 
field  substantially  alone.  On  her  side  were  none 
of  the  gods  and  demigods  of  worldly  circumstance. 
On  the  contrary,  every  power  of  this  kind  was 
bitterly  against  her.  Antiquity  was  against  her  ; 
wealth  was  against  her ;  art,  literature,  and  philos- 
ophy were  against  her ;  pontiffs  and  Cesars,  old  and 
new,  were  against  her  —  all  bitterly  zealous  in  giv- 
ing aid  and  comfort  to  her  enemy.    And  that  enemy. 


EXPERIENCE.  327 

the  central  enemy  itself — what  a  very  monster  for 
intense  vitality  and  power  I  They  err  exceedingly 
who  suppose  this  foe  to  have  been  merely  the  de- 
cayed Paganism,  the  hollow  Judaism,  or  Romanism 
with  its  extensive  abuses.  It  was  none  of  these  so 
much  as  the  giant  wickedness  of  the  times,  only 
partly  expressed  in  these  forms.  Never  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Papacy  was  Europe  more  corrupt,  both 
in  doctrine  and  practice,  than  the  monk  of  Erfurt 
found  it.  Never,  probably,  was  the  core  of  society, 
Gentile  and  Jewish,  more  eaten  out  by  vice  than 
when  Jesus  appeared.  Of  course  this  great  cor- 
ruption struggled  with  all  its  might  against  the 
spread  of  a  religion  so  strict  and  pure  as  the  Chris- 
tian. And  yet  Christianity  conquered.  In  a  brief 
space  it  steadily  forced  its  way  into  ascendency 
throughout  that  old  Roman  world.  In  a  few  years 
it  won  to  the  Reformation  principalities,  cantons, 
kingdoms  ;  and  all,  despite  that  unparalleled  enemy 
with  its  paladin  miters,  crowns,  diets,  conscript- 
fathers,  persecutions,  prestiges  of  all  sorts.  Do  such 
achievements  as  these  come  of  strength  less  than 
gigantic  ? 

Another  fact.  Christianity  has  never  declined 
before  other  moral  forces  anything  like  as  fast  and 
often  as  they  have  before  it,  when  all  have  been  left 
to  their  own  intrinsic  energies.  And  so  they  have 
been  left  in  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 
In  these  countries  the  law  and  doctrine  of  Christ 
have  always  recovered  in  months  the  ground  which 


328  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

they  were  years  in  losing.  Compare  the  reactions 
under  the  Wesleys,  under  Edwards,  under  Chalmers, 
with  tlie  corresponding  declines.  The  infidelity,  the 
formalism,  the  indifferentism,  the  legal  wickedness 
of  all  kinds,  came  in  on  foot  and  went  away  on 
wings.  And  those  late  religious  changes  in  Ireland 
—  how  surprisingly  many  and  rapid  have  they  been  ! 
Who  ever  heard  of  Protestant  parishes,  under 
merely  moral  influences,  clianging  to  Romanist  so 
fast  or  so  often  ?  With  us  it  is  no  uncommon  thing 
for  a  revival,  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  or  even 
days,  to  completely  break  the  staff  of  wickedness  in 
a  community  and  quite  abolish  prevalent  infidelities 
and  heresies.  And,  pray,  where  is  the  instance  of 
these  things,  one  or  all,  reciprocating  conquests  on 
the  Gospel  after  the  same  magnificent  manner? 
Of  all  men,  Americans,  who  hear  so  often  the  rush- 
ing mighty  wind  of  awakenings  and  see  all  things 
in  its  path  abruptly  bending  and  breaking,  should 
be  least  troubled  with  misgivings  as  to  the  pow^r 
of  Christianity.  This  superior  rapidity  of  success 
shows  that,  at  least  in  its  best  states,  the  System 
has  greatly  more  conquering  power  than  any  other 
opposing  moral  force  whatever,  not  excepting  sin 
itself;  while  the  superior  frequency  of  its  successes 
shows  that  it  maintains  the  conquering  state  greatly 
better  than  any  opponent. 

Consider  also  a  still  stronger  fact.  It  is  that,  on 
open  and  equal  field,  the  Gospel  always  conquers 
whatever  moral  forces  appear  against  it  so  long  as 


EXPERIENCE.  329 

it  remains  pure  and  entire,  while  it  maintains  its 
purity  and  completeness  much  better  than  any  of 
them.  No  one  presumes  to  judge  unfavorably  of 
the  energy  of  a  chemical  agent  from  what  it  does  in 
an  impure  state.  What  does  it  when  it  is  itself  and 
by  itself?  —  this  is  the  test  question.  If,  wdien 
freed  from  all  impurities  and  keeping  every  element 
that  properly  enters  into  its  composition,  the  pile  of 
Volta  makes  the  dead  man  leap,  decomposes  the 
firmest  substances,  fires  the  least  inflammable,  bursts 
rocks  asunder,  and  triumphs  over  space  and  time  in 
the  instantaneous  utterance  of  our  thought  a  thou- 
sand, miles  away,  these  effects  are  the  proper  meas- 
ures of  the  battery's  power,  and  not  what  it  d(^os 
when  the  acid  is  absent  or  the  zinc  impure.  And 
so,  what  Christianity  does  when  pure  and  entire  is 
the  only  proper  expression  of  its  force.  Strictly 
speaking,  it  is  then  only  that  it  is  Christianity.  Now 
what  does  it  in  this  state  ?  I  answer.  Conquer  — 
nothing  but  Conquer.  The  world  may  safely  be 
challenged  to  show  an  instance  in  which  the  strict 
System,  substantially  nothing  more  and  nothing  less, 
has  failed  to  gain  ground  on  its  enemies  when  equal 
field  has  been  allowed.  The  Primitive  Church,  as 
long  as  it  continued  itself,  went  on  spreading.  So 
did  the  Church  of  the  Reformation,  save  where  the 
civil  power  interfered.  Never  yet  was  a  real  Chris- 
tian mission  planted  that  did  not  gain  perceptibly,  as 
soon  as  it  was  fairly  at  work  without  molestation. 
It  is  true  that  sometimes  missions  have  been  given 


330  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

up  on  account  of  civil  interference,  want  of  support 
from  liome,  a  change  of  circumstances  apparently 
making  another  field  more  ehVible ;  but  never  on 
account  of  total  want  of  progress  after  the  Gospel 
liad  come  to  walk  about  familiarly  in  the  vernacular. 
And  look  at  home.  You  will  see  that,  there  being 
given  in  a  place  a  pure  Christian  doctrine,  a  living 
Christian  church,  and  a  faithful  Christian  ministry 
—  that  is,  real  Christianity  with  all  its  institutions  in 
a  normal  state  —  it  is  sure  to  make  progress  on  all 
opposing  influences.  None  of  us  ever  heard  of  a 
place  where  it  was  not  so. 

But  what  power  has  the  System  to  maintain  its 
purity  and  entireness?  Eighteen  centuries  have 
passed  since  the  Bible  was  finished.  They  have 
been  centuries  of  great  <jhanges.  In  their  course 
the  world  has  been  wrousiht  over  into  newness  at 
almost  every  point.  But,  to-day,  the  text  of  the 
Scriptures,  after  copyings  almost  innumerable  and 
after  havinfj  been  tossed  about  throuo;h  ao^es  of 
ignorance  and  tumult,  is  found  by  exhaustive  criti- 
cism to  be  unaltered  in  every  important  particu- 
lar —  there  being  not  a  single  doctrine,  nor  duty, 
nor  fact,  of  any  grade,  that  is  brought  into  ques- 
tion by  variations  of  readings  —  a  fact  that  stands 
alone  in  the  history  of  such  ancient  literature.  And 
to-day,  also,  as  in  all  the  past,  there  is  not  a  single 
great  Christian  Sect  that  does  not  hold  as  firmly  to 
the  most  fundamental  elements  of  Christianity  as 
did  the  Primitive  Age  itself.     God,  a  divine  Christ, 


EXPERIENCE.  331 

an  inspired  Bible,  tlie  immortality  of  men,  their 
responsibleness  in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and 
punishments,  their  actual  lost  estate,  their  possible 
recovery  by  repentance  and  faith  on  their  part  and 
by  an  atonement  and  Holy  Ghost  on  the  part  of 
God,  an  honest  walk  of  the  believer  according  to 
the  rules  of  Christ  —  where  is  there  a  larae  De- 
nomination,  bearing  Christ's  name,  that  does  not 
lift  both  hands  in  favor  of  these  Christian  First 
Principles  ?  They  stand  better  than  the  hills. 
Time,  the  great  dissolver,  makes  no  impression  on 
them.  We  confess  to  sore  corruptions  in  certain 
quarters;  yet  it  is  true  that  the  Christian  World 
as  such,  in  its  creeds  and  actual  belief,  still  main- 
tains the  whole  gist  of  the  original  Christianity. 
There  is  not  a  main  timber  in  the  great  ship  as 
it  was  launched  which  is  not  in  it  to-day,  and  as 
sound  as  ever.  On  parts  barnacles  have  been  al- 
lowed to  gather.  At  times  men  have  hindered 
the  sailing  and  the  safety  by  various  outlandish 
equipments.  At  times  they  have  made  our  tri- 
reme fantastic  with  ill-judged  paint,  and  even  odious 
with  unfit  lading.  But,  despite  this,  it  is  the  same 
ship,  as  to  those  great  skeleton  beams  whose  heart 
of  oak  holds  all  together,  that  once  plowed  the  blue 
waves  of  Galilee  and  the  ^Eo-ean  with  the  fisher- 
men  apostles  for  crew  and  undoubted  Jesus  for 
Master. 

So  much  for  what  is  observed  outside  of  the  Sys- 
tem.    Now  notice  some  strong  features  of  the  Sys- 


332  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

tem  itself,  from  whicli  such  effects  might  naturally 
be  expected.  I  think  one  has  only  to  look  at  tliese 
in  their  combination  in  order  to  feel  that  the  Relig- 
ion to  wliich  they  belong  must  be  powerful  in  a  xery 
high  degree. 

I  appeal  to  the  nature  of  the  System  itself. 

Look,  first,  at  the  great  store  of  clear  and  impor- 
tant truth  which  Christianity  confessedly  contains. 
To  say  nothing  of  what  it  tells  us  about  God,  it 
gives  us  very  many  just  and  iin])()rtant  views  of  the 
history,  character,  and  proper  culture  of  man.  Its 
practical  code  is  of  the  best  —  very  sound,  very  com- 
plete, very  valuable  —  and  the  Scriptures  are  starred 
with  thousands  of  excellent  precepts,  each  of  which 
is  based  on  a  truth  as  valuable  as  itself.  This  is 
confessed  by  persons  of  all  creeds.  Even  bitter 
infidels  say  it.  Of  course  truths  so  widely  received, 
and  yet  so  largely  distasteful,  must  be  exceedingly 
clear.  They  call  for  no  unusual  faculty  or  learning. 
They  ask  for  no  happy  moments  of  even  common 
minds.  As  soon  as  fair  statement  of  them  is  made, 
they  stand  forth  to  view  in  sharp  and  pictorial  def- 
inition, and  commend  themselves  to  the  public  con- 
science so  eloquently  as  to  compel  in  their  favor 
promptest  and  unqualified  verdict.  Is  such  an  ele- 
ment as  this  without  great  force  ?  To  suppose  it 
is  to  suppose  that  there  are  no  strong  adaptations 
in  our  constitution  to  leading  facts  in  Nature.  It 
is  to  suppose  that  conscience  is  no  power  in  the 
world  ;  the  instinct  of  self-interest  and  self-preserva- 


NATURE  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  333 

tion  no  power.     We  have  been  told  from  earliest 

years  that  truth  is  mighty;    and  surely  such  truth 

as  we  find  included  in  Christianity  —  so  important, 

so  voluminous,  so  easily  and  vividly  recognized  by 

men  at  large  —  surely  this  is  not  likely  to  put  the 

proverb  to  blush.     It  does  not.    It  is  a  great  unwast- 

incr  water-head  in  the  mountains  —  unwastincr  be- 
es o 

cause  having  direct  communication  with  the  highest 
Divine  and  deepest  human  nature,  with  the  waters 
above  the  firmament  and  the  waters  beneath  —  and 
if  one  asks  why  it  is  that  the  vale  below  smiles  with 
plenty,  and  swift-paced  engines  fill  its  warehouses 
with  useful  and  beautiful  fabrics,  I  point  in  part- 
answer  to  the  rivulets  that  stream  down  u})on  it 
from  every  quarter,  and  to  the  races  whose  fuller 
currents  shoot  steeply  down  from  their  perch  among 
the  eternal  snows  and  clouds  throuo;h  all  the 
droughty  year. 

•Next,  look  at  the  great  simplicity  of  Christianity. 
There  are  things  attached  to  the  System,  and  prop- 
erly attached  to  it,  which  are  very  far  from  having 
this  quality  —  witness  the  folios  of  Christian  phi- 
losophies which  hardly  any  besides  scholars  are  ex- 
pected to  understand.  There  are  things  often  called 
Christianity  which,  if  possible,  still  less  deserve  to 
be  considered  simple — witness  the  trappings  of  that 
great  Church  which  covers  the  best  of  Europe.  See 
Fathers,  Popes,  Councils,  and  Scriptures  brought 
together  in  one  discordant  motley  as  rule  of  faith  — 
and  this  passes    for  Christianity  in  its  foundation. 


334  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

See  dreams,  traditions,  and  Aristotles,  dovetailed 
and  patterned  into  each  other  with  the  most  intricate 
ingenuity  —  and  this  passes  for  Christianity  in  its 
doctrine.  See  a  vast  ecclesiasticism  with  its  tlirones, 
principahties,  and  powers  ;  with  its  croziers,  miters, 
vestments,  censers,  saint-days,  ceremonies,  in  almost 
endless  patterns  of  tinsel  or  magnificence  —  and  this 
passes  for  Christianity  in  its  order  and  worship. 
Heathendom  itself  could  hardly  turn  out  to  us  a 
more  intricate  and  ostentatious  system  than  this  for 
which  is  claimed  so  lofty  a  name.  And  even  in  the 
purest  form  of  the  Christian  System,  there  are  some 
things  hard  to  be  understood  —  let  us  not  fear  to 
say  it  —  parables  and  riddles  hard  as  any  of  Delplios 
or  Theban  Sphinx.  Yet,  after  all,  it  is  permitted 
me  to  speak  of  the  great  simplicity  of  Christianity. 
Though  its  adjuncts  are  not  always  simple,  though 
particular  features  of  it  are  not  simple,  yet,  as  a 
whole,  this  Religion  is  the  simplest  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  Nothing  but  Scripture  enters  into  its 
rule  of  faith  and  practice.  Nothing  but  honest  ef- 
fort to  do  all  known  duty  is  made  necessary  to 
secure  faith  in  this  rule.  Its  fundamentals  of  doc- 
trine are  few  and  easily  understood  :  its  principles 
of  practice  still  fewer  and  almost  universally  ap- 
proved. It  has  but  one  sacred  day  ;  but  one  or- 
der of  religious ;  but  two  ceremonies,  and  those 
in  merest  outline  and  of  the  most  unpretending 
kind.  There  is  nothing  that  can  be  called  machin- 
ery' —  no  diplomacy  of  manner ;  no  sacred  etiquette  ; 


NATURE  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  835 

no  dramatic  gild,  scenery,  costume,  upholstery,  illu- 
minations, judicious  dispositions  of  lights  and  shad- 
ows. Whether  such  things  may,  to  a  certain  extent, 
be  lawfully  connected  with  the  System  in  the  re- 
sponsibility of  human  liberty,  is  a  point  on  which 
Christian  people  may  differ  :  but  it  ought  to  be  plain 
to  all,  that  the}'  are  no  part  of  the  prescribed  S^^stem 
itself.  Here  the  tenor  of  things  is  severely  simple. 
We  everywhere  recognize  the  manner  of  one  who, 
strong  in  birth  and  position  and  unmatched  beauty, 
can  consciously  afford  to  appear  in  the  simplest 
drapery,  and  to  leave  to  less  fortunate  dames  the 
sheen  of  jewels  and  the  triumphs  of  millinery. 

Now,  to  persons  not  a  few,  such  a  severely  simple 
system  is  every  way  more  attractive  than  any  other. 
And,  to  such  as  form  the  bulk  of  mankind,  it  is  one 
which  can  be  more  thoroughly  understood,  vividly 
conceived,  promptly  recollected,  and  easily  worked  : 
and  so  one  more  influential  with  believers  and  in 
their  hands.  A  system  whose  essentials  are  so  few 
and  plain,  can  be  mastered  very  early  in  life  as  well 
as  by  the  humblest  classes ;  a  system  so  capable  of 
being  thoroughly,  generally,  and  easily  understood, 
has  special  security  against  corruption  ;  a  system 
so  sparing  of  sacred  days  and  trappings  and  cer- 
emonials, commends  itself  to  the  necessities  of  the 
masses  ;  is  cheaply  received,  cheaply  supported, 
cheaply  propagated. 

Mark,  also,  the  intense  centralization  of  Chris- 
tianity.    It  not  only  vests,  absolute   authority  in  re- 


336  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

ligious  matters  in  single  Scripture,  but  sends  every 
one  to  it  diit^ctly  and  personally  for  direction.  And 
not  only  so ;  but  the  system  of  general  government 
which  it  represents  God  as  maintaining,  is  of  the 
same  concentrated  and  direct  character.  He  is 
shown  to  us  as,  in  right  and  fact,  the  one  absolute 
monarch  in  the  world  of  events ;  supervising  and 
managing  them  all,  whether  inward  or  outward,  re- 
ligious or  secular,  great  or  small,  with  irresponsible 
and  infinite  power.  Further,  He  does  not  govern 
by  the  spontaneity  of  accountable  deputies,  as  other 
absolute  monarchs  are  always  compelled  to  do 
largely;  but  with  a  personal  thought  and  decision, 
and,  where  the  case  demands  it,  determining  action 
in  relation  to  everything  that  happens,  down  fo  the 
motion  of  the  lifeless  microscopic  mote.  And  as  to 
leading  human  affairs,  what  closer  personal  dealing 
could  there  be  between  subjects  and  sovereign ! 
We  are  individually  held  responsible  for  all  conduct 
directly  to  Him.  He  hears  our  prayers  in  person, 
pardons  our  offenses  in  person,  renews  and  sancti- 
fies us  in  person,  will  finally  judge  us  in  person. 
Depart  from  that  confessional,  O  monk  Luther ! 
Rise  from  before  that  picture  of  the  Virgin,  O  Bo- 
hemian Huss,  as  yet  unread  in  Wickliff !  Ye  poor 
men  of  Lyons  and  kingdoms  silent  with  interdicts, 
tremble  not  while  vicar-Rome  refuses  viaticums 
and  clanks  in  your  ears  the  power  of  the  keys ! 
The  duties  of  Deity  are  not  done  by  curate.  None 
of  the  great  functions  of  His  government  are  trusted 


NATURE  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  337 

to  the  discretion,  even  the  accountable  discretion, 
of  pontiff  or  council,  laic  or  cleric,  saint  or  angel. 
He  is  His  own  parliament  and  judiciary  and  ex- 
ecutive —  His  own  prime  minister  and  cabinet 
and  constituency.  Himself  is  the  State.  Every- 
v^^here  He  worketli  all  in  all.  Never  was  there  cen- 
trahzation  to  match  this. 

Such  is  the  Christian  theory  of  the  Divine  Gov- 
ernment. It  is  evidently  well  fitted-  to  take  strong 
hold  of  the  human  mind.  Naturalism,  crowding 
God  almost  over  the  horizon  by  a  thousand  inter- 
posed second-causes  ;  Paganism  doing  the  same  by 
its  acolyth  gods,  greater  and  less  — -  what  are  such 
proxy  systems,  in  respect  to  impressiveness,  com- 
pared with  one  which  keeps  ever  glittering  in  its 
foreground  and  background  and  everywhere  the 
majesty  and  terribleness  of  an  infinite  Personal 
Ruler  !  The  idea  of  being  always  in  direct  contact 
with  an  almighty  and  irresponsible  sovereignty,  with 
not  so  much  as  a  g-ossamer-web  between  to  deaden 
its  heavy  pulsations  upon  us,  is  fitted  to  appeal 
bravely  to  our  imaginations,  venerations,  and  fears. 
It  at  once  translates  all  the  doctrines  of  Christ  into 
the  imperative  —  all  the  laws  of  Christ  into  the 
awfulness  of  life  and  death. 

This  intense  centralization  of  the  Christian  Sys- 
tem makes  it  to  us  a  system  of  great  liberty,  in  the 
direction  of  our  fellow-men.  By  vesting  the  sole 
authority  in  religious  matters  in  the  Bible,  and  by 
sending  each  man  directly  and  personally  to  it  to 

22 


338  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

gather  its  meaning  in  tlie  exercise  of  his  own  pri- 
vate judgment,  it  denies  to  all  his  fellows,  individ- 
ually and  collectively,  the  riglit  to  dictate  to  him  in 
religion,  either  as  original  autiiority  or  as  expound- 
ers of  Scripture.  If  they  choose  to  advise  him  it  is 
well.  If  they  choo>;e  to  argue  with  him  it  is  better. 
If  they  are  able  in  any  way  to  give  him  light,  it  is 
their  duty  to  do  it  and  his  duty  to  allow  it  to  be 
done.  And  in  case  their  opportunities  are  great, 
their  talents  commanding,  and  their  probity  unques- 
tionable, their  bare  opinions  may  be  entitled  to  great 
weight.  But  as  to  any  right  to  dictate  religious 
sentiments,  to  bind  the  conscience  by  mere  asser- 
tion and  authority  —  this  right  is  given  by  the 
Christian  scheme  to  no  man  or  body  of  men,  far  or 
near,  speaking  or  writing,  living  or  dead,  outside  of 
Scripture.  We  are  not  bound  to  take  their  mere 
word  for  the  smallest  item  of  creed  or  duty,  whether 
they  are  popes,  councils,  or  fathers ;  whether  Lu- 
thers,  Calvins,  or  bluff  Henrys;  whether  Dort 
Synods,  Westminster  Assemblies,  or  ecumenical 
commentators.  All  the  right  the  best  of  them  have 
is  merely  that  of  contributing  materials  for  the  use 
of  our  free  and  independent  judgments.  So  says  the 
Christianity  that  puts  an  open  Bible  in  the  sole  seat 
of  authority.  If  a  man  with*  a  triple  crown  on  his 
head  comes  to  me  and  says,  "  Believe  in  the  im- 
maculate conception,"  it  is  my  Christian  privilege 
to  say  to  him,  **  Prove  that  this  is  Scripture  ;  else, 
though  supported  by  the  whole  world,  it  can  never 


NATURE  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  339 

enter  into  my  creed."  If  conservative  journals 
and  jurisconsults  come  to  me  and  say,  *' Use  not 
your  pulpit  against  sins  which  have  become  po- 
h'tical  institutions,"  it  is  my  Christian  privilege  to 
say  to  them,  "  Gentlemen,  vviih  all  due  respect,  it 
will  be  necessary  for  you  to  prove  that  the  course 
you  require  is  Scriptural  ;  else,  I  must  continue  to 
preach  against  violent  perverting  of  justice  in  a 
province."  Such  responses  are  indeed  bad  mediae- 
val ism,  but  tliey  are  good  Christianity.  I  am  al- 
lowed the  largest  religious  liberty  in  respect  to 
man ;  though  in  respect  to  the  Bible  I  am  under  an 
absolute  monarchy. 

Now  this  large  liberty  is  very  attractive  to  most 
persons.  But  the  chief  thing  about  it  is  its  influ- 
ence in  forming  the  public  to  an  intellectual  habit 
—  to  that  habit  of  self-poised  and  enterprising 
thought  which  goes  to  promote  all  sorts  of  freedom 
and  advancement,  and  thus  to  place  Christianity  in 
command  of  the  most  powerful  and  prosperous  na- 
tions, whose  prestige  and  wealth  and  science  and 
power  shall  preach  for  her.  See  what  has  actually 
happened.  What  nations  are  like  the  Protestant  in 
popular  prosperity  ?  What  Protestants  can  vie  in 
this  with  tlie  English-speaking  race  which  has  long 
been  the  best  stronghold  of  the  right  of  private 
judgment?  At  this  moment  there  is  probably 
more  wealth,  valuable  intelligence,  stamina,  durable 
working  power  among  the  people  of  this  country 
and    Great  Britain,  than  among  many  times  their 


340  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS, 

number  of  other  men  taken  together  in  any  part  of 
the  world.  It  is  a  proverb  —  this  wonderful  Anglo- 
Saxou  energy.  And  the  secret  of  it  is  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  right  of  private  judgment.  This  is 
the  subtle  electricity  which  vitalizes  all  parts  of  our 
thrift  and  ascendency,  this  the  stroncr  heart  which, 
from  deep  within,  silently  projects  the  generous 
blood  to  the  extremities  of  the  system. 

The  Christian  System  consists  of  two  parts.  One 
is  matter  of  rigorous  prescription,  and  remains  the 
same  for  all  countries  and  times.  To  this  belong 
the  doctrines  of  Scripture,  its  moral  laws,  its  sacra- 
ments, and  its  ministry.  It  proposes  that  these 
shall  be  to  us  just  what  they  were  to  the  apostles? 
and  to  the  last  generation  that  shall  walk  tlie  earth 
what  they  are  to  us.  This  is  the  constant  part  of 
that  great  formula  which  we  call  Christianity.  But 
there  is  another  part  made  up  of  variable  quanti- 
ties—  quantities  fairly  belonging  to  the  System  and 
prescribed  by  it  in  a  general  way,  but  to  which  no 
particular  values  are  assigned  within  the  System 
itself.  Some  of  its  general  maxims  of  duty  have 
elements  in  them  which  vary  with  the  circum- 
stances and  characters  of  men.  It  implicitly  re- 
quires some  machinery  of  evangelization,  but  gives 
no  direction  as  to  what ;  leaving  the  missionary, 
tract,  Bible  interests  to  be  cared  for  by  such  organi- 
zations and  methods  as  the  state  of  the  times  may 
seem  to  make  most  efficient.  Moreover,  the  System 
as  a  whole  is  not  cast  into  one  unalterable  shape. 


NATURE  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  341 

Now  it  appears  as  a  busy  biograpliy,  then  as  an  au- 
thoritative lesson,  next  as  a  logic  and  pliilosopliy, 
again  as  a  parable  or  a  proverb,  still  again  as  a 
many  colored  poem.  It  is  like  an  angel  wlio  at  one 
time  stops  at  the  tent  of  Abraham  under  the  dusty 
form  of  a  traveler,  at  another  encounters  Joshua  as 
a  war-captain  with  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand,  at 
another  as  a  man's  hand  writes  startling  laconics  on 
the  wall,  at  another  shines  and  sings  as  a  plumed 
glory  in  the  air  over  Bethlehem.  So  flexible  is 
Clu'istianity  —  and,  I  may  add,  so  powerful.  Instead 
of  beincT  some  stiff  macliine  such  as  man  makes,  and 
to  which  yielding  is  tlie  same  thing  as  breaking,  it  is 
a  solar  system  such  as  God  makes,  where,  within  the 
embrace  of  certain  great  constants,  every  orbit  is 
continually  changing  in  many  ways,  and  yet  all  the 
changes  are  so  summed  and  adjusted  as  in  them- 
selves to  furnish  the  conditions  of  a  stable  and 
mighty  equilibrium.  On  the  tacit  condition  that 
the  main  simplicity  of  the  System  shall  not  be  out- 
raored,  each  man  is  left  to  consult  his  own  sense  of 
fitness  and  beauty  as  to  its  equipage,  its  dress,  and 
largely  all  that  is  mere  body  in  it ;  and  thus,  the 
esthetic  partialities  of  each  nature  being  enlisted  on 
the  side  of  the  System,  it  can  be  embraced  more 
readily,  held  more  firmly,  felt  more  deeply,  and 
propagated  more  zealously.  As  to  style  of  worship, 
each  may  adopt  that  which  he  finds  most  apt  at  im- 
pressing and  spiritualizing  his  own  mind.  Whether 
he  can  achieve  most  devotion  standing  or  kneeling  ; 


342  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

with  liturgy  or  without ;  before  surplice  and  bands 
or  a  black  coat ;  under  Gothic,  Grecian,  or  Sara- 
cenic angles  and  curves  —  let  him  judge  and  suit 
himself.  He  can  be  governed  by  a  church  democ- 
racy, or  a  ministerial  conference,  or  a  general  as- 
sembly, or  a  bishop,  as  he  shall  find  most  pleasant 
and  profitable  to  his  peculiarity.  I  feel  most  at 
home  in  the  modes  to  which  I  have  been  bred  ;  but 
if  any  one  has  a  difterent  taste  I  will  not  forbid  him 
to  follow  it,  for  Christianity  has  not  forbidden  him. 
He  may  fight  the  common  enemy  with  such  weapons 
as  he  can  handle  the  best.  If  he  is  best  master  of 
the  sword,  let  him  use  that ;  if  his  skill  is  in  archery, 
let  him  fit  sharp  arrows  to  the  string  ;  if  his  heavy 
strength  takes  most  naturally  to  the  battle-axe,  let 
him  swing  that  like  crusading  Richard  ;  if  it  suits 
him  to  go  into  battle  on  foot  or  on  Bucephalus, 
with  Saul's  armor  or  David's  sling,  why,  in  the 
name  of  Christian  liberty  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment, let  him  go  after  his  own  fashion  and  be  God- 
speeded.  In  this  way  every  man  is  turned  to  the 
best  account.  His  idioms  become  so  many  special 
Christian  powers.  Instead  of  rousing  into  opposi- 
tion the  individualities  of  a  large  part  of  mankind 
by  one  sweeping  act  of  uniformity,  Christianity 
gives  them  full  play  and  enlists  them  into  its  ser- 
vice. A  system  that  so  adapts  itself  to  the  various 
circumstances,  natural  traits,  and  lawful  moods  of 
men,  never  becomes  superannuated,  has  the  free- 
dom of  all  countries  as  well  as  ages,  lays  hold  of  so- 


NATURE  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  343 

ciety  at  all  points,  and  levies  support  from  a  wide 
range  of  forces. 

Another  power  of  Christianity  is  its  preaching 
ministry.  The  Pagan  priesthood  has  always  been 
chiefly  sacrificial  and  ritualistic.  Islam  has  no  cler- 
ical order :  tlie  Imaum  not  being  appointed  by  the 
Koran,  nor  devoting  himself  to  religious  teaching 
as  a  business.  But  Christianity  has  set  apart  an 
order  of  men  to  the  sole  work' of  expounding,  en- 
forcing, and  propagating  religion,  chiefly  in  the  way 
of  public  vocal  argument  and  appeal  —  'men  who 
shall  not  be  novices,  but  apt  to  teach,  manifesting 
the  word  through  preaching,  giving  themselves 
wholly  to  it,  that  their  profiting  may  appear  to  all.' 
I  say  sole  work  ;  for  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments which  falls  to  Christian  ministers  occupies  so 
little  time  that  it  may  be  overlooked  in  this  con- 
nection. Accordingly,  all  Protestant  countries  are 
so  many  sermon-makinor  and  sermon-hearing  coun- 
tries. Of  a  Sunday  there  are  more  popular  relig- 
ious discourses  pronounced  in  them,  many  times 
over,  than  in  all  the  world  besides,  through  all  the 
year.  And  they  come,  too,  chiefly  from  trained 
men,  to  whom  this  form  of  teaching  is  almost  their 
sole  business.  All  proceeds  on  the  principle  that  it 
pleases  God  by  the  "  foolishness  of  preaching  "  both 
to  save  them  that  believe,  and  to  make  believers. 

A  powerful  peculiarity  of  Christianity !  It  se- 
cures to  it  the  best  possible  defenders  and  propa- 
gators.    It  secures  to  believers  regular,  frequent, 


344  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

and  ablest  instruction  and  prompting  in  Christian 
principles.  And  it  carries  forward  tins  instructing 
and  prompting,  this  defense  and  propagation,  under 
the  most  engaging  and  efficient  forms  ;  mainly  by 
that  public  address  which  so  economizes  the  time 
and  labor  both  of  audience  and  speaker  —  which  so 
rouses  iiis  own  powers,  moves  the  popular  sympa- 
thies, and  meets  the  popular  taste —  mainly  by  this, 
supplemented  by  such  occasional  private  dealing  with 
individuals  as  may  be  required  to  meet  important 
specialties  in  their  condition. 

Let  me  bring  into  a  single  view  three  other  pow- 
erful features  of  the  Christian  Religion  which  well 
deserve  a  fuller  consideration.  These  are  its  holy 
precepts,  easy  test,  and  mighty  sanctions.  I  have 
already  dwelt  on  the  fact  that  Christ  comes  to  us 
with  a  practical  code  of  the  greatest  purity,  known 
to  all  tolerable  consciences  to  be  such.  Equally 
plain  is  it  that  if  this  code  were  universally  acted 
on,  we  should  have  universal  paradise.  Next,  each 
unbeliever  is  told  that  if  he  will  in  good  faith  set 
himself  to  acting  on  the  code,  he  "  shall  know  of 
the  doctrine," — certainly  a  very  fair  offer;  win- 
ning in  its  first  aspect,  full  of  an  air  of  candor  and 
ingenuous  self-  confidence  ;  making  faith  easy,  if 
faith  is  justified  ;  giving  a  crucial  test  of  the  Bible 
quite  independent  of  scholarly  accomplishment  and 
leisure,  and  indeed  of  evervthinop  save  an  honest 
wish  to  know  the  truth.  And  then,  to  rouse  him 
to  this  wish,  he  is  pressed  with  motives  so  vast  that 


TOTAL  STRENGTH.  345 

no  greater  can  be  imagined.  Lo  Heaven,  if  you 
win  a  practical  faitli  —  otherwise,  Hell !  After 
faith  has  been  won,  the  man  continues  to  be  pHed 
from  that  better  fulcrum,  as  long  as  he  lives,  with 
the  mightiest  leverage  of  gratitude,  hope,  and  fear. 
Shall  any  tell  us  that  a  system  whose  practical  side 
so  appeals  to  universal  conscience,  whose  intellect- 
ual side  so  approaches  the  masses  of  society  with 
most  easy  and  decisive  test  of  itself  adapted  to  their 
laborious  and  unscholarly  state,  and  which  forever 
follows  up  all  with  infinite  motives,  does  not  possess 
sources  of  power  which,  were  there  no  other,  would 
make  it  a  world-mover ! 

But,  as  we  have  seen,  there  are  many  others. 
The  Biblical  Religion  is  strong  in  its  unity,  strong  in 
its  simplicity,  strong  in  its  splendid  literature,  strong 
in  its  mingled  absolutism  and  liberty,  strong  in  its 
great  stores  of  confessed  truth,  strong  in  the  sub- 
limity of  its  proposed  object  and  means,  strong  in 
the  accord  of  its  facts  and  doctrines  with  Nature 
and  experience,  strong  in  its  adaptation  to  the  wants 
of  mankind,  strong  in  its  superiority  to  all  other  re- 
ligions, strong  in  its  terrible  alternative  of  no-rehg- 
ion,  strong  in  its  prophecies  and  miracles  and  other 
profuse  evidences.  Putting  together  tliese  strong 
features,  what  a  stalwart  Whole  do  they  seem  to 
make  ?  Especially  in  the  light  of  its  actual  history 
—  showing  what  great  literary  attacks  it  has  borne 
up  against,  what  bloody  persecutions  it  has  outlived, 
what  potent  enemies  it  has  overthrown,  what  huge 


eS46  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

burdens  it  has  lifted  from  society,  what  wonderful 
individual,  local,  and  national  transformations  it  has 
wroucrht,  what  a  shinino;  literature  it  has  created, 
what  a  crowd  of  languages  it  has  taught  to  speak 
its  Bible  all  over  the  world,  what  an  array  of  schools, 
and  colleges,  and  churches,  and  philanthropic  insti- 
tutions it  has  founded,  what  delightful  art  and  use- 
ful science  it  has  nurtured,  what  vast  sums  it  is  an- 
nuallv  expending  in  the  various  Christian  enterprises, 
what  warm  love  it  has  won,  what  high  heroism  it 
has  inspired,  what  rich  consolations  and  joys  it  has 
given,  what  a  sovereign  hold  it  has  had  on  the  judg- 
ments and  hearts  of  multitudes  of  the  earth's  wisest 
and  best,  what  saintly  living  and  triumphal  dying  it 
has  secured  amouf;  the  worst  and  feeblest  of  men. 
Even  the  prodigious  vitality  and  force  of  mediaeval 
errors  grafted  on  it  show  the  rich  strength  of  the 
stock  from  which  they  rob  a  support.  Even  the 
noisy  and  furious  assaults  made  on  it  tell  of  its  mas- 
sive strength  —  as  the  noise  and  spume  of  the  sea 
bespeak  the  rocky  nature  of  the  coast  on  which  it 
is  dashing. 

And  yet,  great  as  must  be  the  power  of  a  system 
to  which  such  facts  and  features  belong,  I  must  re- 
gard them  merely  as  tokens  of  a  power  far  greater 
than  is  fairly  expressetl  in  themselves.  To  me 
Christianity  includes  the  whole  personal  strength  of 
Deity.  It  is  inhabited  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is 
as  mighty  as  God  Himself.  And,  in  virtue  of  this 
personal  almightiness  working  in  the  inherent  fit- 


TOTAL  STRENGTH.  347 

nesses  of  the  System,  it  will  at  last  carry  everything 
before  it  and  renew  tlie  eartli  into  a  heaven.  So 
claims  the  System  itself.  Who  is  able  to  refute  this 
claim?  Where  are  the  facts  against  it?  It  is, 
surely,  nothing  against  it  that  the  Christian  Forces 
are  at  present  more  or  less  latent ;  are  capable  of 
being  successfully  resisted  at  particular  points ;  ap- 
pear at  times  to  advance  but  slowly  toward  their 
goal.  Is  not  yonder  oak  on  the  whole  steadily 
building  itself  up,  year  by  year,  into  the  indisput- 
able monarch  of  the  forest  —  though  from  time  to 
time  it  loses  many  a  leaf,  and  is  even  stripped  into 
seeming  lifelessness  by  winds  and  winters  ?  Is  not 
yonder  ocean  a  great  power,  with  a  great  voice  and 
resistless  wave  at  command  ;  and  is  it  not  gradually 
wearing  away  the  hardest  rocks,  and  even  gaining 
from  century  to  century  on  the  whole  continent 
which  it  besets  —  though  it  sometimes  shows  neither 
ripple  nor  murmur,  and  always  shows  a  daily  ebb? 
Is  not  the  wind  a  great  power  ;  able  on  occasion  to 
travel  at  whirlwind-pace,  level  dwellings  and  forests, 
sweep  before  it  the  white  fleets  of  the  nations  like 
so  many  snow-flakes,  and  insensibly  wear  down  the 
face  of  the  whole  world — thouo-h  it  often  breathes 
gently  as  a  zephyr,  or  breathes  not  at  all,  and  during 
short  periods  works  no  sensible  effects  ?  Is  not  the 
Earth  itself,  considered  as  a  unit,  a  still  greater 
power ;  what  with  its  cogent  attractions,  its  profound 
caldron  preparing  volcanoes  and  earthquakes,  its 
endless  outpour  of  chemical  and  mechanical  ener- 


348  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

pes  in  aid  of  vegetable  and  animal  life,  its  swift 
double-rusli  through  space  —  tliough  its  motions  and 
attractions  are  always  silent  as  death,  and  though 
it  is  only  now  and  then  that  the  glowing  giants 
within  thunder  away  at  the  gates  of  tlie  senses  ? 
Is  not  Light  a  great  power ;  moving  at  such  be- 
wildering rate,  painting  all  Nature  so  exquisitely, 
inspiring  all  vegetable  and  animal  life,  and  forever 
creatinor  anew  on  innumerable  retinas  all  the  forms 
and  aspects  of  the  material  universe  —  though  there 
are  such  thincjs  as  shadows  and  even  nights,  and 
though  one  may  easily  darken  his  eye  and  room 
and  places  without  number  where  light  would  be 
a  blessing  ?  Is  not  this  general  Gravity,  of  which 
we  hear  so  much,  a  great  power  ;  this  gravity  that 
reaches  never  so  far,  that  acts  universally,  that  binds 
its  every  material  thing  helplessly  to  the  earth, 
that  swings  round  the  planets  and  suns  and  even 
firmaments  on  their  mighty  ways  with  such  supreme 
ease  —  though  you  and  I  successfully  counteract  it 
at  particular  points  whenever  we  lift  a  weight,  or 
take  a  walk,  or  cast  upward  a  stone?  Nay,  have  I 
not  heard  of  one  endlessly  convertible  natural  power, 
just  now  fashionable  among  unbelievers,  which  is 
slowly  reducing  yonder  vague  Fire-Mist  into  an 
orderly  firmament,  with  its  unspeakable  momenta 
of  revolving  orbs  and  wide  paradises  of  vegetable, 
animal,  and  even  spiritual  life  ?  What  a  dynamic 
will  be  that  ripened  firmament  with  its  schemed 
millions    of  rushing  solar  systems  !     And  yet,    ac- 


IMPERIAL  ROME.  349 

cording  to  unbelief,  all  that  power  really  belongs  to 
the  tenuous,  eddying  nebula  of  to-day  —  a  power 
largely  latent,  capable  of  being  successfully  resisted 
at  certain  points  and  in  certain  measures  of  develop- 
ment (witness  our  own  successful  counteractions  of 
heat  and  gravity),  and  going  forward  to  its  ma- 
turest  and  most  wonderful  effects  on  a  path  of  won- 
derful length.  Why  may  not  Christianity  be  an- 
other such  power  ?  Why  may  it  not  go  on  working 
according  to  its  own  stately  law  until  it  has  built 
up  around  itself  "  the  New  Heavens  and  New  Earth 
in  which  shall  dwell  righteousness?"  Why  not? 
No  science  is  against  it.  Facts  are  for  it.  I  seem, 
every  now  and  then,  to  catch  glimpses  in  the  Chris- 
tian conversions  and  revivals  of  a  power  that  is 
equal  to  anything  —  power  that  amazes  and  awes 
me.  There  are  tremblings  that  predict  the  earth- 
quake. There  are  subtle  stirrings  of  the  air  that 
show  the  coming  cyclone.  And  what  if,  at  times, 
the  Christian  chariot  seems  to  drive  heavily?  Is 
it  not  moving  against  the  immense  depravity  of  a 
world  of  free  moral  aorents  whose  freedom  must  not 
be  ruthlessly  trampled  upon?  And  may  not  the 
clock  on  the  wall  of  Heaven,  by  whose  golden  cir- 
cle that  chariot  is  driven,  be  one  that  measures  off 
very  different  years  from  those  that  figure  in  our 
earthly  chronologies  ?  Have  I  not  heard  that  "  with 
the  Lord  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day  "  ? 

Sextus  Calpurnius,  proconsular  legate  for  Aqui- 
taine,  has  just  returned  from  his  travels  over  the 


360  CHRISTIAN  p  YNAMICS. 

Roman  World.  What  lias  he  seen  ?  Some  things, 
certainly,  which  he  could  have  wislied  not  to  see  — 
many  breaches  of  the  law  among  subjects  and  rulers, 
especially  in  outskirting  countries  :  much  miscon- 
duct among  the  best  citizens,  tending  sadly  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  state  :  everywhere  parties,  loud- 
voiced  and  fiercely  gesticulating  parties ;  Grecists 
disputing  with  Latinists,  the  friends  of  one  provin- 
cial policy  protesting  against  the  friends  of  another, 
the  partisans  of  one  general  warmly  accusing  the 
partisans  of  another,  one  scheme  of  military  tactics 
struggling  with  hard  words  against  another  scheme. 
He  has  even  encountered  on  the  borders  of  the 
Hercynian  forest  some  Roman  cohorts  in  full  re- 
treat from  winter  and  savages  :  nay,  under  his  own 
eyes,  not  longer  ago  than  the  ides  of  May,  one  whole 
legion  was  fairly  swallowed  up  in  Africa  through 
heat,  battle,  and  mismanagement.  But  what  of 
that?  Has  he  not  also  seen  the  eagle  of  the  empire 
stretching  wings  from  Britain  to  Mt.  Atlas,  and 
from  Euphrates  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  ?  Has  he 
not  found  this  wide  region  profusely  sj)rinkled  with 
public  works  —  highways,  bridges,  aqueducts,  arches, 
palaces,  Colisea  —  massive,  Roman-built?  Has  he 
not  found  the  name  of  Roman  citizen  better  pro- 
tection to  him  than  spear  and  shield  among  twenty 
different  lancruaores  ?  Has  he  not  met  the  leo;ions 
in  all  climates  steadily  conquering  hunger  and  thirst ; 
cold  and  heat;  man.  Nature,  and  themselves?  Has 
he  not  seen  great  commanders  faint  before  the  i 


IMPERIAL  ROME.  "51 

like  children,  great  national  coalitions  briefly  tram- 
pled out,  some  great  Carthage  sending  up  from 
endless  rubbish  a  smoking  testimonial  to  a  still 
greater  foe  ?  Has  he  not  seen  haughty  kings  un- 
covering before  the  majesty  of  the  Roman  People, 
empires  holding  place  proudly  as  Roman  allies  ancl 
wards,  and  the  whole  Roman  World  the  abode  of 
order  and  thrift  beyond  all  other  lands  ?  At  last, 
coming  to  The  City,  Mistress  and  Mother,  lias  he 
not  stood  by  the  tomb  of  the  Scipios  and  there  stud- 
ied the  victory,  the  glory,  the  empire  in  its  sources  ? 
Lo,  the  soundness  of  her  jurisprudence ;  lo,  the 
patriotism  of  her  citizens ;  lo,  the  passion  for  glory 
among  all  her  classes ;  lo,  the  substantial  rewards 
she  gives  to  feats  of  public  service ;  lo,  the  training 
of  her  great  families  to  statesmanship  and  command  ; 
lo,  her  liberty  and  flexibility  as  citizens,  her  disci- 
pline and  centralization  as  soldiers !  Yes,  Rome  ^s 
mighty.  Having  felt  her  pulse  both  at  the  extrem- 
ities and  at  the  central  heart,  in  the  fresh  present 
and  in  wrinkled  antiquity ;  having  handled  her 
thews  and  sinews  through  parallels  and  centuries  — 
yes,  this  is  no  pretender  triumphing  by  grace  of 
almighty  chance,  but  a  true  giant  full  of  life  and 
brawn,  including  in  herself  a  full  philosophy  of  her 
success.  So  he  comes  exultingly  to  his  province 
again.  He,  too,  is  a  Roman.  He  is  an  element,  a 
representative,  and  a  guardian,  of  this  great  Polit- 
ical Force.  New  spirit  awakes  within  him  in  view 
of  the  dignity  of    his   position    and  of  the    power 


m2  CHRISTIAN  DYNAMICS. 

which  supports  liim.  His  arm  is  strung  anew  for 
frontier  strifes  and  upliolding  of  the  Roman  Majesty. 
He  feels  strong  with  its  strength,  royal  with  its 
sovereignty,  rich  with  its  broad  domains,  illustrious 
witlj  its  achievements,  almost  immortal  with  the 
life  of  its  Eternal  City. 

VVMiat  hinders  w?e  from  feelino;  after  that  old  Ro- 
man  manner?  I,  too,  from  my  frontier  have  gono 
foith  to  a  survey  —  not  for  my  sake,  but  for  yours. 
I  have  not  found  all  I  could  wish.  On  the  contrary 
I  have  found  it  still  a  day  of  battle  and  process  ; 
and  that  Christianity,  like  many  great  Natural 
Powers,  has  made  a  covenant  with  time.  But  I 
have  also  found  myself,  beyond  a  doubt,  part  and 
parcel  of  a  very  strong  system.  I  see  that  in  my 
place,  however  obscure,  I  am  representing,  not  some 
fraction  trembling  on  the  verge  of  nihility,  but  a 
great  muscular  Integer ;  and  that  even  more  than 
imperial  Rome  at  her  strongest  marches  with  the 
standard  of  my  honorable  legation.  Nay,  I  see  that 
there  is  nothing  to  show,  neither  in  its  nature  nor 
working,  that  this  Strong  Power  which  I  am  de- 
fending, and  which  is  defending  me,  is  not  as  strong 
as  Almighty  God  —  nothing  to  show  that  a  Force 
strictly  unlimited,  if  dealing  with  such  a  being  as 
man  and  having  unlimited  duration  to  work  in, 
would  have  a  different  history  from  Christianity  it- 
self. And  —  what  is  a  o-rent  deal  better,  and  far 
more  than  Roman  was  ever  permitted  to  find  —  I  find 
that  my  Rome  is  as  true  as  she  is  stronoj.    Her  claim 


A  GREATER  EMPIRE.  353 

to  a  Divine  founding  is  just.  Her  Romulus  is 
really  God.  Her  Numas  are  really  inspired.  Her 
Delphos  and  Dodonas  really  give  Divine  answers. 
Her  Sibylline  Books,  and  her  Law  of  the  Tables 
really  come  from  above.  From  the  seven  hills  of 
her  strength,  she  calls  the  nations  to  allegiance  with 
a  voice  potential  with  the  double  royalty  of  con- 
scious Divine  right  and  conscious  Divine  prowess. 

All  this  I  have  found.  Shall  not  my  heart  be 
glad  at  such  findings  ?  Shall  it  not  sound  as  with 
the  voice  of  exulting  psalms  —  as  sounds  some  ca- 
thedral when  the  jubilee  of  a  nation  rises  within  it  ? 
I  have  not  lost  my  youth.  I  am  not  throwing  my 
manhood  away.  I  have  given  myself  to  the  best, 
and  what  shall  prove  the  most  victorious,  of  Causes. 
It  is  impossible  that  such  a  wise  Power  and  power- 
ful Wisdom  —  with  a  voice  that  almost  wins  battles 
of  itself,  and  a  sw^ord  that  throbs  towards  conquest 
with  the  pulse  of  a  Creator — should  have  but  a 
secondary  success.  She  has  succeeded  already. 
She  will  go  on  succeeding.  She'will  add  province 
after  province,  kingdom  after  kingdom,  to  her  Eter- 
nal City.  At  last  she  will  fill  the  earth  with  her 
superb  monuments  and  superber  Self.  And,  from 
age  to  age,  transfigured  men  shall  stand  on  her 
lofty  battlements  and  look  away  through  the  glow 
of  a  Golden  Age  to  all  the  ends  of  the  earth,  with- 
out being  able  to  see  the  least  occasion  for  such 
faith  ward  looking  words  as  I  have  now  finished 
addressing  to  you. 

23 


PATER  MUNDI, 


OR, 


MODERN    SCIENCE    TESTIFYING 

TO  THE 

HEAVENLY  FATHER. 

IJY   THE   AUTHOR  OF   «ECCE   CCELUM." 

The  First  Series  is  now  ready.    Tinted  paper.  300  pp.  12nio. 
I  'rice,  $1.50.    Sent  post-paid  on  receipt  of  the  price,  by 

NOYES,    HOLMES,    &    COMPANY, 
117  Washington  Street,  Boston. 


The  publishers  of  Ecce  Ccelum  now  solicit  the  attention  of 
scholars  and  of  the  public  at  large,  to  a  still  more  important 
work  by  the  same  author.  Vater  Mundi  is  believed  to  meet  a 
great  need  of  the  times.  Men  are  busy,  as  never  before,  at  taking 
away  the  ancient  Jehovah  in  the  name  of  Science.  In  books,  in 
popular  lectures,  in  journals  having  wide  circulation  and  relig- 
ious pretensions,  and  even  in  colleges  whose  founders  hoped  and 
demanded  better  things  from  them,  the  public  is  being  industri- 
ously persuaded  that  it  is  scientific  as  well  as  natural  to  be  with- 
out God  in  the  world.  Let  all  who  would  see  for  themselves 
how  little  ground  exists  for  such  claims,  read  Pater  Mundi ;  and 
let  all  who  wish  well  to  the  popular  faith,  to  our  holy  religion, 
md  to  the  safety  of  society,  promote  its  circulation  to  the  ut- 
most. It  is  a  hook  for  the  times.  Though  in  the  form  of  col- 
lege lectures,  and  claiming  scientiflc  thoroughness,  it  is  believed 
Lo  be  easy  and  luminous  reading  for  all  classes. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   NOTICES. 

From  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Steams,  D.D.,  L.L.D.,  President  of  Amherst  College 
I  have  beard  them  with  the  deepest  interest.  Tliey  are  so  dear,  so  log 
leal,  so  rich  in  illustration,  so  unexceptionable  and  beautiful  in  style,  ani 
60  conclusive  in  the  argum.'nt  attempted,  that  I  have  profoundly  ad- 
mired them.  Tliose  gentlemen  who  heard  them  when  delivered  bore, 
would,  I  am  sure,  from  the  comments  whlcli  thoy  made  upon  them,  agree 
with  me  entirely  in  the  judgment  I  have  expressed.  Jilay  the  Great  Being 
wliose  existence  these  lectures  so  nobly  defend  from  the  attacks  of  the 
toolish,  though  calling  them.«elves  scientists  and  philosophers,  spare  the 
life  of  the  author  and  enable  him  to  complete  the  full  course  of  thinkiiig 
on  which  he  has  so  triumphantly  entered  and  advanced. 

From  net\  Prof.  C.  S.  Lyman,  of  Vale  College. 
All  whom  I  have  heard  speak  of  these  lectures  have  e.xpressed  for  thorn 
the  highest  admiration.     In  tliought  and  diction  they  are  wortliy  ol 
Clialmers. 

From  Prqf.  Julius  H.  f^eohje,  Professor  of  Mental  and   Moral    Philoso- 
phtj  in  Amherst  College. 

It  is  with  great  delight  that  I  have  received  the  new  book.  I  like,  es- 
pecially, its  whole  attitude  respecting  the  question  discussed;  that  it  is  so 
full  of  faith  and  so  uncompromising.  Atheism  is  as  unworthy  the  intel- 
lect, as  it  is  repugna)it  to  the  heart;  and  I  am  tirtdof  tame  apologies 
from  timid  believers  in  a  God.  I  like  to  see  a  book  that  has  something 
of  a  clarion  ring  about  it,  and  is  not  afraid  to  defy  denial,  when  it  speaks 
of  the  being  and  the  glory  of  the  Heavenly  Father. 

I  believe  that  I'ater  Mundi  will  do  great  good,  and  I  thank  the  Lord 
for  permitting  the  author  to  prepare  and  publish  it. 

Fnym  Rev.  A.  P.  Pcahoihj,  D.D.  L.L.D  ,  Preacher  to  liar  card  Uni 
versitij,  and  Plummer  Professor  of  Christian  Morals. 
I  Ihank  the  author  with  all  my  heart  for  Tater  Mundi.  It  is  the  most 
eflicient  work  of  its  class  which  the  present  generation  has  produced; 
and  as  the  now  e.xisting  scepticism  is  deeper,  more  [pseudo]  scientific, 
more  pretentious,  than  that  of  any  preceding  age;  the  book  which,  like 
rater  Mundi,  is  adapted  to  our  times,  must  need  be  both  broader  and 
more  profound  than  previous  needs  have  elicited.  Its  treatment  of  the 
great  theme  is  at  once  thoroughly  philosophical  and  popular,  both  in 
ptyle  and  in  adaptation  to  the  capacity  of  all  readers  of  average  intelli" 
gence.  It  was  an  unspeakable  privilege  to  the  students  of  Amherst  Col- 
I'^ge,  to  have  heard  the  lectures;  I  trust  that  the  same  privilege  will  be 
extended  tlirough  the  press  to  thousands  of  our  young  men.  While  1 
find  no  fault  nor  deficiency  in  the  treatment  ot  any  branch  of  the  argu- 


mcnt,  I  am  especially  impressed  by  tlie  Seventh  Lecture,  as  the  clear«st, 
strongest,  and  most  eloquent  statement  of  the  need  of  God,  and  of  the 
demonstration  thence  resulting  of  His  existence,  in  the  plenitude  of  Hii 
attributes,  that  has  come  within  the  range  of  my  reading. 

From  Rev.  Albert  Barnes, 

\  was  so  profoundly  impressed,  or,  If  I  may  say  so,  oppressed  and  over- 
wnelmed  with  the  sublimity  and  grandeur  of  the  truths  presented  in  Ecce 
Coelum,  and  with  thw  manner  in  which  the  author  presented  these  groat 
truths,  that  I  am  glad  he  has  followed  with  another  volume  on  the  same 
general  subject.  I  anticipate  in  the  perusal  of  it  great  pleasure  and 
profit.  I  think  the  author  is  doing  great  service  to  the  cause  of  truth 
and  I  hope  that  God  will  spare  him  to  complete  his  work. 

So  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge,  the  greatest  enemy  which  Christianity  has 
to  encounter  now,  is  found  in  the  oppositions  of  science,  so-called.  In 
fact,  so  far  as  I  understand  them,  the  aim  and  tend  'ncy  of  much  of  this 
science,  are  to  blank  Atheism ;  and  1  think  a  man  can  do  no  better  service 
in  this  age,  than  to  meet  and  counteract  this  tendency.  I  rejoice  that 
God  raises  up  men  who  are  qualified  to  do  it.  I  believe  that  the  author  of 
F^cce  Cojlum  Is  such  a  man.  He  has  a  noble  work  before  him,  and  I  hope 
he  will  be  enabled  to  do  it. 

From  the  Tn^ependent. 

We  had  not  read  Ecce  Caelum,  and  imagined  that  the  enconiums  which 
we  had  seen  pronounced  upon  it  must  be  too  high  wrought  for  sober 
truth.  But  now  that  we  have  read  Pater  Mundi,  by  the  same  author,  we 
are  ready  to  believe  every  word  of  praise  to  have  been  within  bounds* 
The  present  volume  is  no  dry,  didactic  treatise.  It  is  warm,  alive,  elo- 
quent. The  author  proves  himself,  in  his  freshness  of  thought  and  in  the 
eloquence  of  his  argument,  inferior  to  no  writer  of  the  day.  We  find  no 
slips  in  science,  nor  in  his  multiplied  illustrations  from  ancient  and  mod 
em  literature.  And  we  do  find  a  grandeur  of  conception  and  a  striking 
originality  of  conception,  so  audacious  that  scarcely  any  other  writer  we 
know  of  would  have  ventured  upon  it.  Wo  see  no  reason  why  our  au- 
thor's writings  should  not  become  classics  in  the  language.  Nothing  can 
be  more  invigorating  to  the  thoughtful  reader. 

From  tlie  Congregationalist. 

We  have  read  it  with  keen  enjoyment,  and  are  disposed  to  regard  it  aa 
\\v  most  substantial  and  serviceable  contribution  to  the  natural  theology 
of  this  generation,  as  it  is  the  freshest  and  most  popular.  No  better  book 
none  more  entertaining,  can  be  placed  in  tlie  hands  of  inquisitive  readers, 
especially  bright  minded  young  men  and  women*  Tlie  author  lays  out  hia 
vi'ork  with  a  singularly  clear  perception  of  the  crepuscular  skepticism 
ivhidi  needs  to  be  dissipated;  and  enters  upon  it  with  manly  and  gener- 


ous  fairness  of  statement,  rigor  of  argument,  and  amplitude  of  apposite 
and  convincing  illustration.  His  stylo  is  in  the  main  so  admirable,  that 
it  may  seem  ungenerous  to  take  exceptions.  Probably  tlie  excess  of 
ornamentation,  the  overfulness  of  illustration,  the  easy  alUuence  of  the 
most  highly  poetic  diction,  and  ihe  general  gorgeousness  of  rhetoric  wiil 
secure  a  hearing  for  the  truth  by  persons  whom  it  is  desirable  to  influ- 
ence, who  might  not  be  attracted  by  an  ordinary  book. 

From  the  Ifnurs  at  Home. 

The  decidedly  oratorical  style  will  serve  to  make  the  essays,  Incisive- 
eloquent,  and  eminently  philosophical  as  we  acknowledge  them  to  be-4ill 
the  more  widely  popular  and  useful. 

From  the  Relig'unis  Herald, 
Cogent  argument  Is  so  lighted  up  with  brilliant  illustration,  as  to  make 
Interesting  the  profoundest  thoughts. 

From  the  Christian  Union.    Rev.  H.  W.  Beecher. 

The  author,  who,  in  Ecce  Cceliim,  established  a  reputation  for  that  rare 
combination  of  excellencies— f-rvid  rhetoric,  scientific  accuracy,  and  com- 
mon sense — has  produced  another  book  designed  to  defend  and  illustrate 
the  doctrine  of  Theism.  It  is  like  breathing  mountain  air  to  feel  this 
man's  earnestness;  it  is  a  true  mental  tonic.  One  sees  instantly  that  he 
is  able-souled,  that  he  can  push  and  climb  without  getting  short  of 
breatli ;  and  it  is  almost  a  foregone  conclusion,  after  reading  the  first 
chapter,  that  one  must  either  stride  with  him  to  k'u  high  conclusion,  or 
part  company  before  starting.  This  unequivocal  earnestness  and  power 
display  themselves  at  the  outset;  great  heart  is  warmed  up  to  begin  with; 
•o  that  one  is  almost  inclined  to  distrust  a  leader  who  has  so  much  the  air 
of  a  partisan.  The  face  set  like  a  fl  ni  does  not  wait  to  be  struck  to  emit 
its  sparks,  but  glows  with  a  fiery  zoal  which  inflames  everything  it  looks 
upon.  Yet,  no  candid  reader  will  say  that  Dr.  Burr  is  dogmatic;  he 
only  plJes  error  with  weapons  for  which  infidelity  has  claimed  a  patent 
right.  No  one  who  reads  this  first  volume,  will  wish  tliat  the  author  had 
written  less  or  otherwise  than  he  has. 

From  the  Advance. 

The  previous  work  entitled  Ecce  Calum,  received  the  highest  commend* 
atiou  from  the  most  competent  judges.  The  present  volume  will  still  fuiv 
ther  augment  the  reputation  of  the  author  as  a  thinker  and  writer.  He 
puts  the  Atheistic  hypothesis  to  severe  and  annihilating  tests;  fully  meet- 
ing its  objections  and  cavils.  Tlio  arguments  of  this  work  are  not  only 
cogent,  but  are  expressed  in  a  lucid,  glowing,  and  eloquent  style;  and  the 
book  entitles  the  writer  to  a  position  among  our  best  religious  authors. 


Ftv     ^«<y.  Edwin  Hall,  D.D.,  Professor  in  Auburn  llieological  Seminary 

I  hjve  read  the  work  with  constantly  increasing  satisfaction  and  delight 
It  is  entirely  worthy  of  the  author  of  Ecce  Ccelum  and  of  its  subject.  So 
far  as  my  reading  extends— and  I  liave  long  endeavored  to  read  in  that  de- 
partment whatever  I  could  lay  my  liands  on  that  promised  to  give  me 
light— I  regard  it  as  the  most  original  and  valuable  contribution  to  the 
subject,  which  the  age  has  produced.  I  shall  wait  with  longing  for  the 
second  volume.  In  the  meantime,  I  hope  the  work  may  have  a  circula- 
tion as  extensive  as  its  worth  deserves.  If  it  were  left  for  me  to  fix  that 
desert,  there  should  not  be  a  library  or  a  fiimily  in  the  land  without  it. 
From  the  Watchman  and  Reflector. 

The  thousands  of  readers  of  "Ecce  Ccelum"  have  not  got  fairly  over  the 
feeling  of  astonishment  and  admiration  which  the  perusal  of  that  remark- 
able book  brought  to  them,  before  another  of  equal  merit  from  the  same 
author  is  announced.  "Pater  Mundi,"  we  are  confident,  will  lessen  notli- 
ing  of  the  high  character  which  Dr.  Burr  has  won  as  an  acute  and  accu- 
rate thinker,  an  accomplished  scholar,  a  brilliant  rhetorician,  and  a 
humble,  childlike  believer  in  God  and  His  revelation.  The  purpose  of  the 
author  is  to  defend  and  illustrate  Theism  and  Christianity  from  the  side  of 
Modern  Science.  There  is  a  wonderful  candor  in  the  entire  process  of  ar- 
gumentation.  Nothing  is  assumed  beyond  what  the  eyes  of  man  behold 
and  his  reason  assents  to.  The  conclusion,  without  being  asserted,  is  irre- 
sistibly forced  into  one's  own  view,  and  wins  acceptance  from  the  thought- 
ful, reasonable  soul.  The  eloquence  of  some  of  these  passages  respecting 
the  fatherhood  of  God  is  overwhelming  in  effect.  We  earnestly  com- 
mend the  book  to  the  careful  study  pf  our  so-called  scientific  men  who  are 
trying  hard  to  rule  a  personal  God  out  of  the  universe.  We  wish,  too, 
that  every  young  man  in  the  nation  would  read  these  pr.ges.  We  are  sure 
that  nothing  more  fascinating  in  interest  and  really  healthful  and  elevat- 
ing in  influence  can  be  found  among  all  the  books  of  the  day.  The  book 
is  handsomely  printed  by  Nichols  &  Noyes  of  this  city. 
From  the  Sunday  School  Times. 

This  volume  is  an  eloquent  and  unanswerable  protest  against  modern 
atheism  in  all  its  forms.  "Modern  science  testifying  to  the  Heavenly 
Father,"  is  the  author's  secondary  title,  and  it  describes  accurately  the 
course  and  object  of  his  argument.  His  methods  of  presenting  the  sub- 
ject, however,  are  entirely  original,  and  are  wonderfully  eflective.  The 
ivork  is  particularly  opportune.  There  are  in  all  our  congregations 
thoughtful,  cultivated,  quiet  men,  whose  faith  has  been  shaken  by  the  bold 
assumptions  of  infidel  scientists.  Dr.  Burr's  book  is  just  suited  to  restore 
guch  persons  to  their  equilibrium.    It  is  written  in  a  most  attractive  stylei 


and  shows  a  masculine  vigor  of  thought  that  cannot  fall  to  command  ro» 
spect. 

From  tlie  Thcolog.ical  Eclectic.    Professors  Day,  Schaff,  etc. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  able  work  entitled  Ecce  Coelum,  in  terms 
of  high  commendation.    The  present  work   by  tlie  same  author  exhibit! 
the  same  power  of  comprehensive  grouping  and  vivid  presentation,  and 
abounds  in  great  thoughts  freshly  put. 
From  Rev.  Mark  Hopkins,  D.D..  L.L.D.,  President  of  Williams  College, 

I  am  greatly  indebted  to  the  author  of  Pater  Mundi.  It  is  a  freih  and 
powerful  work.  If  any  commendation  from  me  will  aid  its  circulation. 
It  is  freely  given. 

From  a  H.  Dalsbaugh,  Pa. 

Certainly  this  is  a  book  to  stop  the  mouth  of  skeptics.  It  seems  to  me 
that  never  was  atheism  in  its  protean  forms  more  squarely  met  on  its  o^vn 
ground,  and  never  more  clearly  discomfited  with  its  own  weapons.  No 
two  links  of  its  argument  are  left  together.  The  author  has  triumphantly 
vindicated  the  title  of  his  book.  Its  matter  and  style  appeal  to  both  our 
innate  susceptibility  to  truth,  and  our  sense  of  the  beautiful.  In  my  view, 
never  did  logic  and  poetry  more  heartily  embrace  each  other;  never  did 
beauty  smile  more  divinely  on  the  face  of  the  sternest  facts. 
From  the  New  York  Evening  Post. 

The  clear  and  beautiful  logic,  and  the  crystal  style  of  Ecce  Coelum,  fas- 
cinated religious  minds  everywhere  in  this  country.  Tliis  book  is  written 
by  the  same  perspicuous  pen.  That  it  is  in  the  form  of  lectures,  rather 
Improves  it  tlian  otherwise.  The  special  aim  of  the  author  is  to  wrest 
from  the  wild  materials  of  this  day  the  powerful  sceptre  of  science,  which 
they  have  seemed  to  wield.  All  the  teachings  of  science  and  nature 
point  to  the  "Father  of  the  World."  Tliis  book  is  one  calculated  to 
strengthen  the  faith  of  professors  of  religion,  and  to  lead  captive  young 
minds  straying  into  error.  We  ought  to  mention  in  closing,  the  bi-autiful 
typography  of  the  book.  rubli:>hed  by  Nicliols  &  Noyes. 
From  the  Evening  Wisconsin,  Milwaukee. 

The  style  is  clear,  and  always  strong  and  forcible  in  an  unusual  degree 
while  many  passages  rise  to  great  beauty  and  eloquence.  Seldom  have  we 
read  anything  upon  the  subject  of  Christian  evidence  that  was  so  enter- 
taining, so  instructive,  and  so  satisfactory  as  this  book.  It  is  tlie  off>pring, 
of  a  vigorous  intellect,  and  it  is  a  most  valuable  addition  to  religious  cul- 
ture. 

From  tlie  Christian  Recorder,  Philadelphia. 

So  charmed  are  we  with  this  magnificent  production  of  Dr.  Burr's,  t'nt 
really  we  scarce  know  where  to  begin  its  praise.    Its  excellence  is  uniform. 


Lecture  first  and  lecture  ei£;htih  equally  demand  admiration.  So  every  part 
of  each  lecture.  The  chain  of  gold  is  not  only  complete,  but  every  link  is 
complete.  The  Colonnade  is  not  only  symmetrical,  but  its  minute  carv« 
ings  are  perfect.  To  quote  from  it  to  our  own  satisfaction,  would  be  to 
quote  the  whole  book,  but  we  remember  that  Messrs.  Kichols  &  Noyes,  the 
publishors,  have  a  copyright. 

How  majestically  does  the  author  of  Ecce  Coelum  send  forth  his 
thoughts  into  the  world !  In  majesty  do  they  stride  forth  either  to  con- 
quer, to  convince,  or  to  woo.  Now  as  a  mailed  warrior  are  they  seen,  fully 
panopled  from  head  to  foot,  and  crushing  by  the  strength  of  his  argu- 
ments every  foe — crushing  every  atheistic  shield,  and  helmet,  and  breast- 
plate. On  almost  every  page  of  Pater  Mi'ndi,  these  all-crushing  arguments 
are  to  be  met— on  almost  every  page  we  eee  victims  lying  mangled  and 
bleeding. 

We  do  not  know  that  the  author  of  Pater  Mundi  lays  claim  to  the  po- 
etic gift;  and  yet  has  he  given^us  a  sublime  Didactic  Poem.  Not  in  verse, 
is  it  given;  it  is  neither  Dactylic,  Anapa2Stic,  Iambic,  nor  Trochaic. 
But  poetic  imagination  shines  on  every  page.  Untrammeled  by  rule, 
and  enjoying  a  freedom  that  the  utmost  poetic  license  could  not  allow, 
the  author  has  given  us  a  poem  infinitely  sublimer  than  could  possibly 
have  been  done  in  any  other  form.  Would  that  we  could  give  our  read- 
ers the  concluding  pages  of  Lecture  "VII.  Such  poetic  thought!  Such 
beauty  of  expression!  Such  smoothness!  Such  harmony!  Words  an- 
swer to  words,  and  sentence  to  sentence,  with  such  sweetness  that  one 
glides  along  to  the  conclusion,  as  smoothly  as  a  New  England  sleigh,  and 
as  merrily  as  its  ringing  bells. 

From  the  Norwich  BnUetin, 

It  will  be  a  great  advantage  to  the  reader  of  this  work  to  have  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Dr.  Burr's  previous  volume,  "Ecce  Coelum,"  as  thus  many 
of  the  references  in  "Pater  Mundi"  will  be  the  more  intelligible  and  vivid. 
The  quality  of  the  new  work  is  in  all  respects  admirable.  Dr.  Burr  ha« 
a  wonderful  enthusiasm,  always  fresh  and  intense.  He  is  full  of  his  sub- 
ject. He  has  the  faculty  of  so  treating  profound  and  sublime  themes,  as 
to  bring  them  easily  to  the  comprehension  of  all.  He  has  a  fervid  style, 
whose  richness  seems  inexhaustible.  He  has  great  fertility  in  argument, 
and  presents  his  suggestions  with  rare  simplicity  and  force.  The  volume 
will  go  far  to  combat  the  sophistries  of  Atheism,  both  in  uncultured  minds 
and  in  those  of  strong  logical  powers.  We  cannot  too  highly  commend 
it,  and  we  predict  that  it  will  find  a  place  in  every  well  stocked  religious 
library. 

From  the  Standard,  Cliicago,  111. 

\i  any  one  should  infer  from  the  title  of  this  book  that  it  is  a  heavy  and 
yrnsy  aissertation,  he  would  be  astonished  on  looking  over  its  pages 


Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth.  Tlie  author  Is  an  enthusiast,  one 
of  those  who  have  not  "discovered  that  one  must  be  indifferent  in  order  to 
be  fiiir."  The  book  is  fresh,  earnest,  and  eloquent,  and  we  felt  its  strong 
epell  before  reading  a  dozen  pages.  The  statement  of  arguments  is  admira- 
bly clear,  the  development  of  them  is  natural  and  impressive,  and  there  is 
displayed  a  wonderful  power  in  massing  facts  so  as  to  give  their  full  and 
combined  effect. 

Frvm  the  CJiicago  Tribune. 

This  work  in  some  respects  is  very  remarkable.  It  is  not  only  compact 
In  argument,  and  forcible  and  clear  in  statement,  but  it  is  also  absolutely 
brilliant  and  sparkling  in  manner,  and  rich  and  copious  in  illustration. 
Judging  only  from  the  one  volume  before  us,  we  should  pronounce  it  as 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  fascinating  books  of  the  day. 
From  the  Orleans  Republican,  Albion,  N.  Y. 

Tlie  author's  premises  are  bold,  and  his  line  of  argument  clear,  forcible 
and  persuasive;  shirking  nothing,  antici{>ating,  and  answering  objec- 
tions with  equal  fairness.  The  work  is  calm,  liberal,  and  large  thoughted ; 
full  of  admirable  logic,  and  profound  reasoning;  and  the  last  three  lec- 
tures, especially,  are  grand  with  beautiful  and  terrible  imagery,  exquisite 
poetry,  and  striking  allusions  to  those  mysterious  facts  and  forces  of  na- 
ture which  startle  and  awe  believer  and  unbeliever  alike;  and  his  conclu- 
sion is  singularly  suggestive  and  powerful, 

From  Rev.  Attstin  Phelps,  D.D.,  Professor  in  Andover  TheologiccU 
Seminary. 
I  wish  to  thank  the  author  for  "Pater  Mundi."  Not  that  it  needs  any 
commendation  from  me :  but  I  cannot  but  be  grateful  to  any  man  who  helps 
me  to  a  new  depth  or  vividness  of  conception  of  God ;  and  this  you  have 
done  by  your  book.  I  am  specially  impressed  by  the  power  with  which  it 
draws  the  great  alternative,  —  a  God  benevolent,  or  a  God  malignant.  The 
reductio  ad  absurdum  is  fearfully  overwhelming;  and  the  recoil  with  which 
one  springs  luick  from  it  gives  one  a  lodgment  and  a  resting-place  in  the 
Infinite  Love  which  no  gentler  discipline  could  secure  so  well.  This  vigor 
of  religious  sensibility  in  your  works  charms  me.  We  need  it  greatly  in  our 
Christian  literature,  to  supplement  alike  the  wiry  intellect  of  which  we  have 
enough,  and  the  emotive  softness  of  which,  perhaps,  we  have  a  little  more. 
From  the  American  Baptist, 
Tlie  author  has  a  strong  and  vigorous  style,  and  a  power  of  grasping 
and  grouping  great  truths,  which  make  all  that  he  utters  luminous  and 
convincing.  Though  prepared  specially  for  educated  men,  they  are  adapt 
pd  to  all  readers,  have  no  abstruseness  of  diction,  no  intricate,  far-fetched 
or  dubious  arguments.  The  author  will  impart  no  small  measure  of  the 
Indignation  he  feels  towards  atheism,  concealing  itself  under  the  name  of 
f^cience,  to  those  who  re^d  his  book,  and  we  trust  it  may  have  a  very  wide 
circulation. 


From  The  Xcta  Englander. 

TliG  author  of  Eccc  Ccalum  could  not  well  be  expected  to  write  a  dull 
book  on  any  subject,  much  less  one  in  which  God  and  nature  were  the 
chief  topic.  But  whether  he  would  be  able  to  clothe  a  skeleton  of 
a  two-volume  argument  for  Theism  —  often  so  dry  and  grim  In  other 
hands— with  the  flesh  and  muscle,  the  life  and  beauty,  that  charm  us  in 
Parish  Astronomy,  could  only  be  shown  conclusively  by  the  production  of 
a  work  like  that  before  us.  Pater  Mundi,  will,  by  the  glow  and  magnet- 
ism of  its  rhetoric,  and  the  enthusiastic  earnestness  of  its  tone,  as  well  as 
the  strength  of  its  argument,  be  sure  to  command  everywhere,  apprecia- 
tive and  admiring  readers,  and  prove,  we  trust,  of  special  value  to  those  who 
arc  inclined  to  regard  science  as  hostile  to  religion.  Its  logic  is  vitalized 
and  made  effective  by  the  force  and  richness  of  the  illustrations  drawn 
from  the  various  fields  of  science.  It  is  these  all  glowing  often  with  poetic 
fervor,  that  rivet  the  attention  at  once,  and  carry  the  reader  on  insensibly 
from  topic  to  topic.  In  some  of  the  lectures,  indeed,  the  argument  as- 
sumes the  elevation  and  almost  the  form  of  a  grand  poem.  The  sixth,  for 
example,  like  a  sublime  ode,  returns,  strophe  by  strophe,  with  each  point 
made  in  the  argument,  to  the  same  exultant  chorus,  which  becomes  at 
once  a  quod  erat  dcnvonstrandum,  to  the  understanding,  and  an  inspi- 
ration of  faith  to  the  heart. 

The  second  volume  promises  to  be  even  more  attractive  than  the  first ;  for  it 
is  to  be  still  more  replete  with  the  marvels  and  sublimities  of  the  sciences 
as  illustrative  of  the  argument.  It  is  too  much  forgotten  by  many  that  God 
may  be  studied  in  flower  and  forest,  in  storm  and  star,  and  in  the  soul  of 
man,  as  well  as  in  Moses  and  the  prophets.  The  glowing  pages  of  "  Pater 
Mundi,"  teach  impressively  that  the  God  of  Revelation  is  the  God  of 
Nature  as  well. 

From  tlie  Methodist, 

Th9  many  gratified  readers  of"  Ecco  Coelum."  will  welcome  this  new 
and  important  work  of  Dr.  Burr.  It  is  a  book  for  the  times.  Natural 
Theology  can  no  longer  retain  its  old  form :  the  progress,  not  only  of  Sci- 
ence but  of  speculative  thought,  demands  a  thorough  revision,  "Pater 
Mundi"  meets  this  demand  with  masterly  ability. 

From  the  American  Fresbyterian  Iteview, 

A  new  work  by  the  author  of  "  Ecce  Coelum  "  is  sure  to  attract  unusual 
attention;  nor  will  expectation  be  disappointed.  Dr.  Burr  is  an  original 
and  independent  thinker,  and  he  writes  in  a  style  of  singular  freshness 
and  rhetorical  beauty.  His  book  is  timely.  Though  popular  in  its  ad- 
dress, it  sacrifices  nothing  to  effect,  and  is  wholly  free  from  that  superfl- 
cialty  which  is  usually  found  in  the  attempt  to  reduce  the  conclusions  of 
Bcience  to  the  level  of  a  popular  audiance.  It  discusses  with  masterly  abil- 
ity the  testimonies  of  Modern  Science  to  the  being  of  a  God,  and  defends 
Theism  from  the  attacks  of  sk^itical  science  in  a  bold  and  critical  spirit 


worthy  of  all  praise.  It  is  as  profounjly  religious  as  it  ia  thoroughly  sci- 
entific. While  it  freely  accepts  the  results  of  the  freest  investigations,  itably 
argues  that  there  is  nothing  in  one  of  these  to  shake  the  christian's  faith, 
but  much  to  confirm  it.  The  work  cannot  fail  to  havo  an  important  influ- 
ence on  Natural  Theology— bringing  it  into  harmony  with  the  progress  of 
Science  and  speculative  philosophy,  and  arming  it  with  a  new  power  of 
demonstration. 

From  the  Princeton  Review. 

Dr.  Burr,  known  to  us  in  his  youth  as  a  modest  and  studious  lad,  and 
since,  as  the  faithful  and  unpretending  pastor  of  a  rural  congregation,  has 
sudden'y  burst  on  our  vision  as  an  author  of  the  first  mark  in  the  highest 
reUlras  of  thought,  and  as  a  leading  defiinder  of  precious  truth  against  the 
assaults  of  scientific  pretenders  and  pretentious  sciolists.  He  calls  to  mind 
the  days  when  the  great  New  England  divines,  the  Edwardses,  Bellamy, 
Backus,  Smalley,  Emmons,  were  pastors  of  agricultural  congregations. 

The  universal  approbation  of  Pater  Mundi  and  the  previous  volume,  by 
the  press  and  by  christian  thinkers  of  the  highest  reputation,  we  find 
borne  out  by  actual  insjjection.  Real  science  is  proved  to  be  the  hand- 
maid of  true  religion,  in  a  series  of  discussions  which  evince  a  masterly 
comprehension  of  the  issues  involved— a  thorough  acquaintance  with 
modern  science  and  its  relations  to  religion— the  whole  in  a  style  clear 
and  simple,  vivid  and  graphic.  We  think  the  quiet  of  a  country  charge 
more  propitious  to  thorough  study  and  deep  thinking,  than  the  din  and 
whirl  of  metropolitan  excitements. 

From  Prof.  D.  C.  Oilman,  Tale  College, 

I  feel  moved  to  express  my  hearty  appreciation  of  the  service  the  author 
of  "  Pater  Mundi "  is  rendering  to  the  world  by  the  publication  of  these 
earnest,  brilliant  and  impressive  discourses. 

From  Hon.   Henri/  X.  DrtiOKs,   M.    C. 

The  pleasure  with  which  I  road  aloud  to  my  family  "  Ecce  Coelum"  has 
prepared  me  for  an  increased  delight  and  profit  in  reading  "  Pater  Mundi. " 
1  am  very  proud  of  the  author,  and  rejoice  in  his  growing  fame. 
From   Our  3[onthlij,  CincinnMti,  Ohio, 

We  are  voiy  glad  to  welcome  and  commend  this  book.  The  author  does, 
with  singular  ability,  what  he  proposes  to  do.  His  trumpet  utters  no  un- 
certain sound.  There  is  no  danger  of  any  one  mistaking  his  meaning. 
We  think  it  high  time  the  arrogant  assumptions  and  speculations  of  some 
scientific  mt  a  in  the  interest  of  infidelity  and  atheism  were  exposed,  and 
the  harmony  of  all  true  science  and  revelation  vindicated,  made  more  ap- 
parent, and  presented  in  some  popular  form.  This  Dr.  Burr  is  doing,  and 
the  first  installment  of  his  work  we  have  in  this  series  of  lectures.  That 
tbey  will  be  found  interesting  and  convincing  we  need  not  say  to  thosfl 
who  have  read  '  Ecce  Coelum." 


AD    F  I  D  E  M. 

A   NEW  BOOK, 

BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF  "  ECGE  CCEX-UM." 


The  publishers  have  the  pleasure  to  announce  a  new  and  important  work, 
by  the  distinguished  author  above  named,  which  will  command  attention 
from  all  classes,  entitled 

AD     Fl  DE  IVI  ; 

As  spoken  to  the  Poople  from  Week  to  Week  by  One  who  Believes, 

The  new  work  proposes  to  do  for  the  Evidences  of  the  Christian  Religion 
what  "  Ecce  Coelum  "  aims  to  do  for  Astronomy.  It  proposes  to  bring  these 
Evidences,  without  any  sacrifice  of  scholarly  accuracy,  luminously  and  ef- 
fectively within  the  reach  of  ordinary  minds.  It  v/ill  show  the  peopt.k  lioio 
to  believe. 

To  indicate  the  general  scope  of  the  work,  a  brief  synopsis  of  the  Contents 
is  given  below:  — 

I.    Various  Opinions. 
II.    General  Assent  to  Fundamentals. 

III.  A  Sad  Excepttojv. 

IV.  A  Great  Offer. 

V.     I  WILL  ACCEPT. 

VI.  The  Honest  Purpose. 

Vn.  Using  present  Li<;irr. 

Vni.  Patiently  seeking  Liciit,  — upward  and  aroitivd. 

IX.  Presumptions. 

X.  Three  Prophecies. 

XI.  Three  Marks  of  a  Fal'^e  Christ. 

XII.  An  Incredible  Imposturk. 

Xin.  Signs  and  Wonders. 

XIV.  From  behind  the  Curtain. 

XV.  Nearing  the  Curtain. 

XVI.  Rising  of  the  Curtain. 

XVII.  Proof  by  Experience  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

XVIII.  Dynamics  of  the  Religion. 

XIX.  What  ayill  IIe  do  with  It. 

Published  in  handsome  style,  uniform  with  "Ecce  Coelum  "  «ind  "  Pat.' r 
Mundi."    300pp.,12mo.    Price,  $1.50.    (Heady  October  1st.) 

NOYES,  HOLMES,  &  COMPANY, 

Publishers.  Boston. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


